The Morning After Dark
by AliceBB
Summary: -continues where At the End of the Night left off- Emily is on her way back to JJ. Will she get there and will they be able to figure out what's happened and who's behind it all? What they find will bring Emily's past full circle. Now Complete.
1. 100 Years

A/N: This story is the sequel to (and basically continuation of) At the End of the Night. If you have not already read that story, this story will make no sense whatsoever. This story will also continue with quite a few original characters and this chapter in particular has a lot of back story on a couple of them. I hope you don't find it/them (and this chapter) too tedious. I also hope you manage to stay with me again as this story will turn things around a bit and ramp up the action. All that is in the future -- just keep reading. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed At the End of the Night. You make doing this so much easier. Alice …………………..

**The Morning After Dark **

**Part 3 All Down (continued)**

**Chapter 1: 100 Years**

**Prologue**

Less than one hundred years ago all the things we take for granted were nothing but science fiction. No global communications, no air travel around the world in mere hours, no computers to tie us together and process all our day to day goings on at lightening fast speeds.

A man in a small town in southwestern Nova Scotia walked to work every day no BlackBerry on his hip, no Bluetooth in his ear, and no laptop computer in a bag over his shoulder. The office of the shipbuilding company he worked for was just down over the hill from the house his grandfather had built and where he now lived.

The people he met on his walk to work were familiar to him and if he wanted to talk to his friends and acquaintances, he just stopped and did so. Face to face, person to person. No need to hurry, hurry, call you later, text me, message me, IM me.

How far we have come from then; how different it is now. We are no longer one small town. We are one small world. We communicate all over the earth in real time, instantly. We are spread all over this planet yet all together _here_. Our world is no longer just that short walk from here to there. Our short walk is the circumference of the globe.

How many things we take for granted: power to keep our houses bright and warm and all our tools and toys available, telephones, cell phones and Internet so we can talk about next to nothing endlessly, computers to run everything we care about and rely on, and everything we don't even know about yet rely on just the same.

In just one hundred years we have come so very far. So far that maybe we are past the point of no return. Maybe a step back is beyond our ability. What would happen if all our technology just went away? Where would we be then; in the dark; lost and alone?

That man in the small town in Nova Scotia was my grandfather. He never knew me. If he did know me in the world I live in now, I'm sure envy is the last thing he would feel.

**18:35 hours EST The BAU Quantico, Virginia**

Agent Derek Morgan placed a mug of herbal tea, bag still in, in front of his friend and colleague Penelope Garcia and touched her hand reassuringly. "How are you doing?" he asked his voice gentle.

Garcia looked up taking her eyes off the table top where she had been seeing without caring every scratch and stain on the solid surface for some time. "My entire world has come to a screeching train wreck of a halt, Derek, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure how I am." She stirred the tea absently, pressed the bag against the side of the mug with the spoon. "Lost would be a start. I'm bereft of purpose and feel devoid of meaning. Those work too." She set the spoon with the bag on the table beside her mug, took a tentative sip.

"I'm worried about JJ and I wish I knew where Emily was and if she's safe. I hope Hotch is with his son and they are safe and I hope Rossi is, well I'm sure he'll be safe wherever he is." Beside her Morgan sighed and tried his best to smile.

"They have closed the gates," Spencer Reid announced as he walked toward them smoothing back a loose strand of hair from his eyes. "Everyone who wanted to go has left. No one will be allowed into, or out of, the campus for a while or until the situation stabilizes."

Morgan and Garcia just looked at him watching as he clasped his hands together and nervously looked away.

"You know what I am happy about?" Garcia looked at each of her two friends in turn. "I'm happy you guys are here with me," she smiled brightly and reached to hug Morgan.

"Yeah, baby girl," Morgan hugged her back, "me too."

Reid waited self-consciously while Garcia came toward him and gathered him in a strong embrace. Once her arms were around him he felt the simple reassurance of being close to another human being in a time of such uncertainty.

"Me too," Reid said patting Garcia's back. He let his eyes find Morgan's for a moment and nodded at the other man as he repeated, "me too."

When Garcia finally let him go he smoothed back his hair again and finished telling them his news. "They are opening the cafeteria. Anyone who wants to volunteer can cook and the rest of us can have whatever we want."

"Sounds like a plan," Morgan slapped Reid on the shoulder as he started toward the glass doors. "Let's go."

**Same time, Guerin's house outside of Washington**

JJ stood by the big windows overlooking the backyard of the house watching as the last of the day's light faded from the sky. Orange and pink were slowly being replaced by shades of grey and blue as the sun dropped further and further away.

"It's going to be a long night," Mani Grayson said at her elbow, "a very long night."

JJ looked at the other woman and saw the pain so obvious on her face. She had been thinking the same thing and she was sure her expression was no different.

Grayson looked behind them to where two cots had been set up to hold the two unconscious women a small table between with the laptop and its strange, moving displays of vital signs and brain functions split into two, one for Robichaud and one for Guerin. Wires connected each patient, Guerin through her implants and Robichaud through sensors placed on her head and chest. The tall woman, Carmo, sat on the floor next to Guerin's cot her head slumped sideways against Guerin's hip. The cat purred in her arms occasionally nudging her chin with its head though Carmo did not seem to notice.

"Are they going to be alright?" JJ asked watching as Devin Tergensen brought a large tray from the kitchen, placed it on the coffee table and went to Robichaud kissing the older woman gently on the forehead. Tergensen looked up noticing she had been observed. Her eyes met JJ's and quickly looked away as she went to the tray and poured coffee from the carafe.

"Guerin is stable," Grayson was watching Tergensen add cream and sugar to the coffee in her mug. "It's Mich I'm worried about." Tergensen went to sit in one of the club chairs near the fireplace her eyes going to JJ and Grayson by the window as if she had heard what Grayson had said.

"Let's have some coffee," Grayson touched JJ's arm lightly and moved away.

JJ followed the other woman to the big couch, accepted the mug of coffee she handed her. They could both see the laptop screen, could see that one of the patient's outputs seemed much weaker than the other.

"What happened to them?" JJ asked Grayson, catching and holding the other woman's gaze. About fifteen feet away she could feel Tergensen watching, listening.

"Guerin received a powerful shock," Grayson began slowly. "She's very sensitive to all the people around her; can feel people on a level beyond what we call normal. She's able to block it out most of the time -- she wouldn't be able to survive let alone cope if she didn't. I think that," Grayson hesitated then knowing her words would sound strange to the other woman, "Guerin felt many, many people die suddenly and all in the same exact instant and it was too much for her. It was a shock like she has never felt before."

"And Doctor Robichaud," JJ took a sip from her mug, "what happened to her?"

"Mich tried to hold Guerin back; she did hold her back actually."

Out of the corner of her eye JJ saw Tergensen clutch her cheek with her hand her expression suddenly troubled. "I'm not sure I…" JJ started.

"I suppose all this must seem like some bad semi-supernatural lesbian soap opera to you," Grayson smiled. "And it is, I guess, in a way." Her eyes went to Guerin then Robichaud then back to JJ. "We are all bonded together in a weird way through Guerin. I suspect even your Doctor Reid felt the same shock the three of us did since he has been close to Guerin."

JJ thought of Reid and how different he had been since that day he and Emily had come back from finding the bodies at the property in Virginia. The property Garcia had found once belonged to the suspect Bennett's dead grandmother.

"Mich's bond with Guerin is the strongest," Grayson continued. "She's the only one who could have kept Guerin from going beyond reach."

Tergensen turned her head away burying her face in the cushion of her chair. As JJ watched the red headed woman's shoulders shook slightly.

"Mich has always been Guerin's anchor; her connection to reality and to humanity. She was there first at that godforsaken prison in Arizona. They called her in to consult when Guerin, who was supposed to be in a deep unrecoverable coma, began exhibiting strange behavior."

JJ felt a tingle of apprehension crawl along her spine and a cold chill settled over her as Grayson began to tell the bizarre story of the wounded and comatose woman now lying on the cot in front of them.

They had been leaving her to die, the murderer without a family to care about her, and for all intents she was already gone. Then odd things began to happen at her bedside: objects were moved, knocked over or otherwise disturbed. They placed a hidden camera to capture evidence of who was going into her room without permission and caught instead a tissue box, flower vase and clock moving on their own.

That unknown and ever present department of the government that kept its ear to the ground for such strange goings on (very "X-Files" Mani had added with a smile) sent their expert on all things weird and psychological, Micheline Robichaud, to investigate.

Doctor Robichaud found a patient who should have been without any perceivable brain function operating on an entirely different level. Her brain was alive, there was no doubt of that Grayson had verified the findings herself when called by Robichaud to consult, Guerin was just not_ here_. She was somewhere _else_.

For weeks Robichaud tried to reach her sitting by her bed concentrating, trying to reach out with only her mind and touch Guerin in the place she had gone to, that place between life and death because Robichaud believed there was such a place and that Guerin was not beyond reach. And one day she found her and Guerin latched on and Robichaud brought her back to reality. It was not a smooth transition though. Guerin suffered terribly from headaches and her body had wasted away while in the coma. Once awake they found out she could do fantastic, unbelievable things this girl who had almost died not once but twice; the girl whose hair had fallen out and grown back a bright white.

They worked with her, Mani and Mich, for months trying to make her somewhat normal – as normal as she could ever be considering – helping her over her rage at the loss of Claire and her contempt for the men who had killed Claire and nearly killed her, and the wildness and lack of humanity her long break with reality had left her with.

And they helped her hone her new skills. Someone with the abilities she had was rare beyond belief and a valuable asset. When the-powers-that-be found out what she could do, how she could read people on their basest level, know their thoughts and their memories, they employed her for their own use and she became the interrogator no one could keep a secret from.

"So you work for DHS or some secret government department?" JJ stared at Guerin on her cot watching as she breathed, her chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly.

"Not Homeland Security," Grayson answered. "That's just a cover Devin likes to use because it gets results."

JJ thought of that day at the BAU; Tergensen striding down the hall as if she owned the place Guerin and Robichaud following in her wake.

"The actual group that controls Guerin, gives her assignments, tells her where to go and what to do, is beyond secret and beyond accountability. They are connected more with the NSA than any other real entity."

In the club chair a few feet away, Tergensen gave a snort of derision and looked away.

"It hardly matters who they are. Guerin hates them because they will never let her go, never let her have her own life. Not that she has a real life anymore. All she has is us and the work she does."

JJ looked at Grayson feeling the tired resignation in the older woman. "What kind of life is that? What if she wanted to go home, back to Canada?"

"This is her home now. She has no other place to go. We are her family."

Watching Grayson JJ could see something subtle change in her eyes, could see something troubling her when she said the word 'family'. Across the room Tergensen was watching closely.

"Mich will never leave her, not willingly," Grayson left the sofa and went to the laptop computer crouching with her back to JJ. Feeling Tergensen's eyes on her JJ glanced at the other woman. Their eyes met for a long moment before Tergensen looked away.

**Later at the BAU**

Garcia, Reid and Morgan sat at a table in the cafeteria with several other people exchanging stories and bonding in the way that only those in a shared predicament can. The current topic was 'most embarrassing moments' and Garcia had just recounted the time she had thought it was Morgan on the phone when in fact it was Director Strauss.

Beside her the FBI Academy firearms instructor could not stop laughing. "I did her requalification a few months ago," the woman managed to squeak out between bouts of laughter. "She was so anal I thought she had a 9mm up her ass not in her hand."

"You should clean her office," an older man across the table spoke up.

"Oh, no, man. I do not want to even go there," Morgan laughed. "Does she make you polish her garbage can?"

"How did you know?" the janitor deadpanned and the table erupted again.

"Check her drawers," Garcia said when the laughter had died to a level she could be heard over. "I bet she's got half of the local sex shop in there."

There were snickers all around as no one disagreed. "I can see that," Reid added and everyone looked his way. "For some people in high stress jobs sex play is an outlet, a way to…"

"Reid, dude, please stop!" Morgan looked at his friend not knowing whether to be concerned or laugh. "If your mind goes down that road it will never come back."

"I think she'd look hot in leather," Reid looked at Morgan his gaze steady.

"Oh, no,no,no," Garcia patted her chest for affect. "That is just too many kinds of wrong."

Over the laughter from all around the table, Morgan and Garcia could see the playfulness come into Reid's eyes as he slowly smiled.

"Reid, you are too much sometimes, you know that?" Morgan told his friend.

**Later at Guerin's house**

As the long, dark night wore on Robichaud's condition deteriorated. JJ watched as hour after hour either Grayson or Tergensen sat next to the psychologist holding her hands, touching her cheek tenderly and talking softly to her. As Robichaud went downhill so did Tergensen. As Grayson took her place on the couch next to JJ, Tergensen paced toward the windows where she stood still, a dark shadow in the moonlight, head bowed and shoulders slumped in misery.

"You can't reach her?" JJ asked hesitantly unsure of the terminology let alone the actual reality of the strange connection between the women she found herself confined with.

"No," Grayson answered. "Neither of us is strong enough and Carmo," both of them looked at the tall, dark haired woman curled up asleep on the floor beside Guerin's cot the cat a tight, sleeping ball against her abdomen. "Carmo is too disorganized and her bond is with Guerin not Mich though she respects Mich and will listen to her, it's not enough."

Grayson was silent for a long moment before she continued. "I don't think even Guerin could reach Mich."

"How did…" JJ started unable to finish the question.

"Guerin would've died if Mich had not grabbed on to her," Grayson explained and JJ flashed to those seconds just after Guerin had collapsed and Robichaud sagged in her arms.

_Mich! Don't let her go! _

"Mich gave everything she had to hold Guerin back," Grayson said slowly. "Everything she had."

**A little while later**

Grayson was in the kitchen when an alarm sounded on the laptop waking JJ from a troubled doze. Tergensen jumped to her feet and stood staring down at Robichaud frozen in fear and shock.

Grayson rushed to kneel next to Robichaud's cot taking the other woman's hand and holding fast. "Mich, don't leave us; please don't leave us."

JJ's eyes were on the two side by side displays on the laptop. Robichaud's side was almost nonexistent while on Guerin's side there was a momentary spike in activity.

On the cot, Robichaud gave a last sigh, her lips moved in a silent whisper, then she was still. The alarm on the laptop stopped its wail only to be replaced by a different sound from Tergensen who had collapsed on the floor her head down on her knees as she rocked back and forth.

"Oh,no,no,no,Mich," she keened over and over. Carmo was sitting up and her dark eyes, wide with anxiety, were moving between Grayson, who was slowly going through the motions of checking Robichaud's vital signs, and Tergensen crouched at the head of Robichaud's cot.

JJ hesitated for only the barest second before going to Tergensen, kneeling beside her and reaching her arms around the other woman. Tergensen fought the embrace struggling like a child her breath ragged as she repeated "no,no,no" over and over.

Without so much as a thought nor, consideration of what it might be, JJ began to sing her voice soft at first then stronger as she reached somewhere inside herself pulling up a strength she didn't know she possessed.

_When I find myself in times of trouble mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be._ In her arms Tergensen stopped fighting, her body relaxing to the point of limp as her keening died to a soft sobbing_. And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be…_ JJ raised her head and met Grayson's eyes her voice strengthening as she saw the tears on the other woman's face.

_Let it be, let it be, let it be, oh let be, whisper words of wisdom, let it be._ Tergensen was clutching at her now pressing her face into JJ's chest reduced to nothing more than the barest need._And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me, shine until tomorrow, let it be…_

**Later at the BAU**

Garcia, Reid and Morgan were gathered in Hotchner's office silently staring out the windows waiting for the long night to end. Eventually the morning after the long dark night would come and they would carry on with whatever was on the other side. Until then, they were left to wonder and worry about the friends who were not with them and their families, such as they were, who could not be reached by phone or Internet since those conveniences once taken so simply and easily for granted no longer existed.

**Same time at Guerin's**

"Thank you for that," Grayson sat beside JJ placing a pill bottle on the coffee table. They both looked at Tergensen curled tightly in the club chair her eyes vacant. "She will rest once the sedative takes effect."

"It was the least I could do," JJ said absently.

"So simple it is to have so much love," Grayson spread her long hand over JJ's, pressed down for a moment before drawing away.

"I'm sorry about Mich," JJ caught the other woman's hand, held it tight. "Just before she -- before this all happened -- she was telling me about… she was thinking about her daughter in Holland."

Grayson looked away obviously pained. "Her daughter is in Rotterdam. I've talked to her on the phone a few times but never met her. She's twenty one, a student I think." Grayson looked away again for a moment. "And her husband is in Brussels. I suppose when this is all over I will have to try to contact them."

Carmo came back into the room and began to take apart the empty cot. JJ didn't bother to ask where the tall woman had taken Robichaud's body. Grayson let go of JJ's hand and covered her face with her hands sighing deeply. JJ gave her a moment before touching her shoulder lightly. "You loved her, Mani?"

Grayson looked up a smile spreading across her mouth. "Mich was easy to love. That's probably why her husband let her go but still kept what small piece of her he could keep." Her smile cracked then her eyes filling with tears. "I loved her, I did. Not like Devin did, though." Grayson propped her chin on her fist ignoring the tears that rolled down her cheeks and dripped off her jaw. Her eyes were on the red headed woman across the room.

JJ looked at Tergensen sitting in the chair her arms around her raised knees she was still but not asleep.

"Devin found something in Mich she couldn't find in anyone else, especially not Guerin."

"What's her story?" JJ asked softly her eyes never leaving Tergensen.

Grayson took a deep breath and sat back sinking into the warm cushions of the sofa. "Devin is so conflicted," she began. "You know if you asked her, she would tell you she's straight. Yet she loved Mich with everything she had."

"And Mich…" JJ prompted knowing firsthand how it felt to be conflicted and also knowing how that conflict was so easily solved by one person. She felt her throat tighten as she thought of Emily.

"Mich loved her like a daughter, and she loved me like the friend and colleague I was," once again JJ could see the pain behind Grayson's eyes and recognized it for what it was: unrequited love. "Guerin was the only one Mich truly gave all of herself to and that went beyond sex, their bond was so deep. Devin could never accept that. All she knew was Guerin had something she so desperately needed."

Grayson wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Guerin could never understand why they put Devin with us. She and Mich and I had been together from the beginning and then they threw Devin into our midst. Guerin thought it might be punishment against her since she does love her red headed girls, Guerin does," Grayson laughed lightly, "and Devin does bear a superficial resemblance to Claire. More likely it was a punishment against Devin."

JJ said nothing just waited for the other woman to continue.

"Devin was in her first year at West Point when they kicked her out after finding her in bed with a female instructor. Her family had some connections and she went next to the FBI Academy. She managed to make it through although her record was less than exemplary due to her way of getting under everyone's skin in more ways than one. She never served with the FBI; where she went after that she keeps a secret, but it was probably the CIA. Then she came to us. We were already a twisted little circle the three of us. You would think she would've gravitated right to Guerin, since Guerin has such pull in that way, but not Devin; no, she went right to Mich. Her love went to Mich, at least, her addiction went to Guerin. Mich saw that and tried to balance the dark rawness Devin had with Guerin with an unconditional love even if it wasn't sexual."

JJ was watching Tergensen across the room feeling a greater understanding of the other woman and all her conflicts and complexities. "I never felt conflicted that way," she found herself saying, "at least not with Emily. I've made some bad decisions in my life; Emily certainly was never one."

"And she's not a simple one to love…"

"Oh, she's easy to love," JJ cut Grayson off. "She's just…" JJ left off unable to explain Emily and all her demons. Instead, she reached into her pocket and took out her BlackBerry. Powering it back on, she skipped over the "looking for service" display and found Emily's text message. Handing the phone to Grayson she watched the other woman's reaction as she read the text.

_I am coming back to you, Wait for me, I will be there, Emily _

"She loves you, that's for sure," Grayson smiled. "God protect anyone that stands in her way." For a long moment she was silent. "There's still time for you two, at least," she finally said looking at JJ for only a moment before looking away again.

This time the silence between them stretched much longer. JJ spared a quick look at her watch. It was 05:35. Soon the sun would rise again and those that had made through to the end of the night would reappear to assess the damage and carry on.

JJ thought of her parents hiding out in the basement of the old house she had grown up in. She could picture in her mind the first rays of sun slanting in through the narrow, dirty windows and so clearly in her mind she could see her father pulling the axe handle out of where it was wedged to keep the doors locked tight. He would throw open the big outside door, and step out cautiously looking around and hopefully seeing everything just as he had left it. Henry would bound up the steps behind him eager to get out and tackle the next adventure.

Emily was not nearly such a clear image. JJ wished, not for the first time, she knew where she was and what she was doing.

"Don't worry about Emily," Grayson said as if reading her thoughts. "She's a helluva tough girl. If she wants to make it back to you, she will."

"She was here, wasn't she?" JJ finally asked the question that had been on her mind all through the night.

"She was here twice. The first time I made her breakfast and talked to her," Grayson's tone was reflective, not troubled. "She was very confused by her contact with Guerin. It was stirring up things in her she found painful, things she didn't want brought out."

"The second time?"

"That was much different. I wasn't here when it happened. I arrived after the fact. After Emily knocked Guerin unconscious and Carmo nearly killed her for it."

JJ felt her blood pressure rise at those words and she looked at the tall woman sitting on the floor by Guerin's cot playing with the cat. She was certainly odd but hardly looked dangerous except possibly as a physical threat. Even that didn't fly since JJ knew there was hardly a woman born that could beat Emily in a fair fight.

"Guerin has a way of pushing at people and some people don't like it much. Guerin probably went too far with Emily simply because she was attracted to her. Mich told me Guerin was trying to help her sort out all the feelings that had been stirred up in her, but I know Guerin; nothing is that simple with her."

JJ looked at the woman lying on the cot and thought about how, only less than a day ago, they had sat on this same couch and JJ had looked into eyes she found both honest and cold at the same time.

"Don't worry about Emily and Guerin. If nothing else Guerin learned her lesson there."

JJ wasn't totally satisfied. "What about her?" she nodded to Carmo, "why would she want to kill Emily?"

"Carmo was protecting Guerin," Grayson watched as the tall Portuguese woman giggled like a child as she teased the cat. "Emily went after Guerin in a rage. The only one who could break the grip Emily had on Guerin was Carmo."

"You don't mean literally, do you?" JJ asked slowly, wondering how she could possibly imagine anything else.

"No, not literally," Grayson replied. "Emily resisted Guerin; pushed back against Guerin being in her head – as it were. Not very many people can resist Guerin and no one has ever beaten her on her own turf."

"So Carmo is like Guerin?"

Grayson let out a long breath. "Not exactly, no. Carmo is moderately autistic," when JJ frowned, Grayson elaborated. "Oh, she can function on a high level when she wants to and she loves those computers. If you just saw her in that environment you'd think she was a genius."

Again JJ waited out the other woman.

"When Mich found her Carmo was in a catatonic state. She's from the Azores and she was at a special school in France when…" Grayson shook her head unable to continue. When Grayson sat up, JJ could see the weight of Robichaud's death and Carmo's unknown tragedy on her shoulders.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," JJ said sympathetically.

"It's a terrible story," Grayson started looking at Carmo who was now holding the cat belly up and stretched out like a string bean. Laughing she blew raspberries into the cat's fur. "No less tragic than Claire's when you consider the abuse men can put women through and in Carmo's case, she was just a girl. And she lived."

Grayson directed her next words at the tall woman. "Carmo," she said sharply to get the woman's attention, and then spoke slowly enunciating each word clearly. "Why don't you feed Hermione? I'm sure she must be hungry." Carmo considered this for a moment before getting to her feet and heading for the kitchen. The cat ran after her tagging her heels with a clever paw and making Carmo laugh.

"Guerin reached Carmo and brought her back just like Mich had brought Guerin back. That's why their bond is so strong and Carmo will throw herself into any situation to protect Guerin. She just doesn't think like we do. She thinks on a much baser level and the autism makes her both disorganized and focused at the same time in the same way she can be both loyal and without a conscience as well.

"So confusing this little world of ours you've found yourself caught in," Grayson smiled sadly at JJ. "And you came here looking for Emily and found us instead." Patting JJ's knee Grayson got up to check on Guerin.

"Mani, thank you for talking to me," JJ said to the older woman's back where she knelt beside Guerin's cot. "I'm so sorry about Mich."

Grayson paused, her hand on the laptop's keyboard. Her head with the short dark curls flecked here and there with grey dropped forward and after a beat or two she nodded almost imperceptibly.

JJ got up from the couch crossing the great room to the doors to the patio. She worked the lock undone and stepped outside.

The air was crisp but not cold in the fresh way that winter can sometimes bring. Walking away from the house she turned toward the east and stood watching as the sky changed ever so slowly from the deepest blue to the lighter shades of blue on the horizon. Like the night before when she had watched the sun go down, the colours were the same only the greys came first with the pinks next in reverse order of the sunset.

Clutching her arms tight around her chest she thought of Henry and had no doubt he was safe with her parents. When that thought was complete her mind went to Emily.

_I know you're out there. I know you're coming back to me. I love you, Emily. Please get here soon. I'm waiting for you._

100 Years – Five For Fighting

Next: Chapter 2: Come Back to Me


	2. Come Back to Me

A/N: Time to start ramping up the action and the tension. This chapter is my tribute to all you confident, self-aware readers out there that just happen to not have as many years behind you as you have ahead of you. I think you're off to a good start and I think you're kinda cool. You know who you are.

Alice …….

**The Morning After Dark**

**Chapter 2: Come Back to Me **

**06:30 EST outside of Savannah, Georgia**

Emily had stopped on the side of the road to prepare herself. She was just a short distance from the place marked in the survivalist notebook as being somewhere she could get gas and rest safely. She was not desperate for gas; the Range Rover's big tank was still half full, she just didn't want to take the chance she would get close to Washington and run out at the last minute.

She had wasted a lot of gas while idling the engine stuck in traffic jams on the Interstate highways. The worst grid lock was around the major cities. Once out of Florida she had paralled the I95 finding the secondary roads less heavily travelled and less likely to be blocked by National Guard checkpoints.

Her FBI credentials had got her past the road blocks set up to keep people from fleeing whatever unknown dangers they imagined. While stopped at one near Tampa, she had heard rumours ranging from a Cuban invasion to a spreading plague. Shortwave radio broadcasts gave better information: the power grid was still down in most of the country though parts of northeast were recovering, all communications of the telephone and cell variety were still out and the condition of the president was still unknown.

The shortwave broadcast she had listened to recently had repeated announcements from the Florida and Georgia governors that amounted to 'stay in your homes, do not travel, conserve food and water, seek medical help only when absolutely necessary and above all do not panic there has been no verified report of a nuclear bombing anywhere in the United States'.

This conveniently left out Mexico City and one could only wonder what was happening there or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

Emily loaded the Berretta 92 and shoved it under her belt at the back of her pants. In her front pants pocket she placed several of the hundred dollar bills and one of the gold coins she had found in one of the bags Odalis had packed. Pulling on the long raincoat, she got back in the driver's seat with the Remington shotgun resting on her left thigh.

The road was extremely rural and very quiet this early in the morning. She passed several houses all without any signs of life before she arrived at the place in the notebook. On the Range Rover's computer screen was an image of the place from Google Street View. Although there was no online GPS or Internet connection, the computer had topographical, satellite and street view imagery of much of the country and all of the places listed in the notebook.

It looked like it had once been a service station. There was a narrow concrete pad where the gas pumps had once been in front of the building with its two bay doors and office. An addition had been built over top of the garage bays and off to one side was a mobile home. Cars in various stages of repair surrounded the property. Not a soul was in sight.

Driving very slowly, Emily pulled into the open dusty area in front of the garage stopping on the near side of the old pump pad. As she got out of the Range Rover, she heard a dog start to bark. Through an opening above the pocket of the raincoat she held the Remington close to her hip out of sight, her left hand around the pistol grip.

A German Shepherd came around the side of the mobile home ahead of her trialing a long chain. For just a moment she was reminded of another place in Georgia with dogs, an old barn and a stunned, blood splattered Jennifer Jareau.

A man followed the dog the end of the chain wrapped around his left forearm. He was holding a shotgun, his right hand on the trigger. When the dog was about twenty feet from her he yanked the chain. The shepherd stood still, growling softly, teeth bared.

"Who the hell are you?"

The man looked her up and down the shotgun held steady in front of him at waist level. His eyes then went to the Range Rover behind her. Emily took two steps to her right to stand directly in front of the big SUV.

"I have the Donner Party address book. Are you George Rogers?"

The man relaxed somewhat but did not let down his guard. He kept his eyes pinned to hers.

"What you got in yer left hand?" he demanded gesturing with a flick of the barrel of the shotgun.

"I am well armed," Emily stated slowly drawing her left arm away from her body so the Remington was visible. "I am also well trained. If you are not George Rogers and you don't know what the Donner Party book is, I'll get back in my truck and be on my way. Otherwise, I'd like to talk about getting some gas and maybe resting here for awhile."

The man closed the distance between himself and the dog. "I am and I do," he stated and gave a quick command to the dog.

Emily was watching the dog settle on its haunches, saw the slight movement of its head as its eyes shifted from her to something behind her right shoulder. Instantly she tensed, her right hand wanting very badly to go to her Glock on her right hip.

When she slowly turned her head she saw a teenage girl standing next to the passenger side door of the Range Rover. The girl held a small caliber rifle to her left shoulder and was sighting down the barrel at Emily's head her grip rock steady.

For a long moment the three of them and the dog stayed frozen in standoff until the man barked another order, this time to the girl.

"Stand down, Mary."

Slowly the girl lowered the rifle. She took several steps away from the SUV toward the man and stood there silently her attention divided between Emily and the Range Rover her look speculative and possibly admiring; of both Emily and the vehicle.

"So, how about some gas? I can pay." She kept her attention directed at the man as she spoke. The girl she could see out of the corner of her eye.

"Money's not much good for anything right now," the man shifted the shotgun so it was cradled in his arms, "trade is better."

"How about this then?" Very slowly Emily reached behind to the Berretta. The movement and the revealing of the Glock on her hip caused the girl to raise her rifle again. Ignoring the girl, Emily withdrew the handgun holding it between her thumb and forefinger. "I'm going to unload it; to do that I have to sling my shotgun."

The man gave a quick nod. Taking the Remington from under her coat, she put the strap over her shoulder. Once her left hand was free, she dropped the magazine from the Berretta and racked the slide ejecting the round in the chamber. Pocketing the magazine and extra round, she held out the handgun.

The girl took it, looked it over, then handed it to the man. "You got more rounds for this?" he shoved the handgun in the front of his pants and walked toward her.

"I might, after I get some gas."

The man gave a snort of laughter and stuck out his right hand. "George Rogers."

Emily took the callused hand and shook firmly. "Emily Prentiss."

George walked closer to the Range Rover. "Where the hell you get this beast?"

Smiling for the first time in a long while, Emily replied. "It's a long story."

"Diesel?" he was looking in the driver's side window.

"No, regular unleaded."

George laughed again. "Follow Mary around back."

At the back of the building, Emily parked the Range Rover next to what she surmised was a sort of manual pump. Up on stilts and under a large tarp was a tank. George placed a hose in the Range Rover's gas cap and nodded to the girl Mary to start the flow. Although she did not say it, Emily suspected there was a larger underground tank and the pump was used to transfer gas from it to the smaller above ground tank.

When the Range Rover's tank was full, Emily handed the magazine and a box of 9mm rounds to George. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Back to Virginia," Emily answered. "I was on vacation when all this happened."

"If you want to stop for awhile, you can wash up and I'll get Mary to make you something to eat."

Now that the gas had been delivered, Emily felt enough trust for George to take him up on the offer. Besides, the thought of doing something other than driving (or sitting) was very appealing.

"Alright."

"We have to get this thing out of sight," George went to the rear bay door of the garage, began pulling it up. "Anyone sees it they'll be over for a look see in no time."

Emily drove the SUV into the bay and got out. She made a point of arming the anti-theft system so George could not help but see. Again the man gave a short laugh. "Don't worry," he said. "I ain't gonna steal it. I'd have a helluva time explaining how I come by that beast to the neighbours."

He took a few steps away then turned around. "I'll start the generator, Mary." From his pocket he withdrew a small walkie talkie, waggled it at the girl, "Call me if you want me."

"This way," the girl gestured to a set of stairs and Emily followed her up.

At the top of the stairs was a living area with a galley like kitchen to the left. Looking around, Emily easily deduced a teenager lived here. There was a flat screen TV in front of a tattered couch with pieces of a game console on the floor. Scattered around the room were bits of clothing and many books, a mixture of text books and paperback novels. On the walls were pictures of a couple musical acts and several movie posters.

Emily couldn't suppress a smile as she stopped to admire a framed copy of the "_Resident Evil: Extinction" _poster. Turning around, she found the girl watching her closely. "Can I see that?" she asked Emily nodding to the Remington shotgun.

"Ah, no," Emily replied as she began walking around the room glancing at the titles of the discarded books. The paperbacks were heavy on female military sci-fi protagonists; authors like Elizabeth Moon and Tanya Huff. "Not into '_Twilight_'?"

Laying the rifle on the old Formica topped kitchen table the girl turned toward the refrigerator. "Kirsten Stewart is sweet, but I don't do vampires." With a rumble and a hum the fridge motor started up and a light over the sink flickered and came on.

"When I was your age it was Jodie Foster."

Turning with a carton of eggs in her hand a smile tweaked the corners of the girl's mouth. Placing the eggs next to the stove she tossed a quick gesture across the room. Near the door to the apartment's bedroom was a poster of "_The Brave One_".

"The bathroom's through there," the girl stated. "You can have a shower except the water won't be very hot. We've only been running the generator on and off."

Emily admired Jodie, head down, pistol in hand, a tiny bit of bare midriff showing, as she went into the bedroom. Not surprisingly the bedroom was worse than the living area though the tousled bed looked inviting as tired as she was.

She didn't shower, just took care of business and washed her hands and face. Back in the other room, she placed her shotgun next to the old rifle, tossed the raincoat over the back of the couch, and took one of the chairs at the table.

There were two mugs of instant coffee already on the table. Emily took a sip, watching as the girl turned from the stove a plate in each hand. She was fairly tall, with a somewhat stocky athletic build, short blonde hair, and very light blue eyes.

"No bacon?" Emily asked as the plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and tomato slices was placed in front of her.

"I'm a vegetarian."

They ate in silence; Emily noticing the girl stealing glances at her. She supposed she couldn't blame her; it wasn't everyday one of her heroes stepped out of a book or off a poster and had breakfast at her table.

"Where'd you get that totally hot Range Rover?"

"It belongs to a friend of mine."

"He let you borrow it?"

"She."

The girl paused, her fork halfway to her mouth. "Seriously? How fucked up is that?"

"Very fucked up," Emily thought of Guerin. "And how old are you?"

"Eighteen."

Emily doubted that, putting her age closer to seventeen maybe even sixteen. If there was a poster of "_Some Kind of Wonderful_" the girl could be Mary Stuart Masterson. All she needed was the drum sticks.

"So who are you? The girl version of Mad Max?" Mary asked, blonde bangs hanging over one eye.

Emily laughed. "My ride is way cooler than that." She finished her coffee, placed the mug on her empty plate. Fatigue was catching up with her. "Listen, is it OK if I lay down for awhile; have a nap?" Emily jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the bedroom.

A strange look crossed the girl's face. "Sure, be my guest."

Taking the Remington with her, Emily went to the bedroom. Sitting in the chair next to the small desk she loosened the laces on her boots. There was an open laptop computer on the desk, the screen dark. Beside the computer were several sheets of paper that looked like they had been printed from web pages. Her eyes travelled over the top page picking out words and phrases like 'bi, leaning toward girls', 'rural Georgia' and various movies and television shows.

"I write stuff on the Internet. Stories about TV shows, some movies," the girl said from the doorway.

Emily thought of giving her the standard 'the Internet is a dangerous place' lecture but didn't have the energy. She slipped out of her boots, leaving them at the side of the bed. Double checking the safety, she rested the shotgun against the headboard. Then she pulled off her holster and loosened her belt a couple notches. Getting comfortable enough to lay down was complicated when you were so well armed.

"Are you any good?" When the girl didn't answer she added, "As a writer?"

"Yeah, I think so. I have lots of fans."

Emily pushed a rumpled pillow under her head as she stretched out on her back. "Don't touch the shotgun, Mary."

**Later**

Coming slowly awake, Emily had no idea where she was. _At least JJ's here with me_, her mind reported. She was aware of a warm body pressed against her back, an arm draped over her side. But somehow that didn't quite jive. Her brain then began filling in details: rural Georgia, gas for the Range Rover, girl with an old .22 caliber rifle, messy bedroom -- teenaged girl's messy bedroom.

_Oh, shit!_

She moved her arm out from under the girl's hand, turned enough to look over her shoulder. "I think you need to wake up," she patted the girl's hand where it now rested on her hip. There was a murmur and a stirring behind her then the light blue eyes were blinking at her.

"I didn't touch your shotgun," Mary rolled onto her back, yawned.

"Your father would kill me if he found us like this."

"He's my cousin and he knows I like girls."

Emily just closed her eyes. "I'm forty years old, Mary."

"So?"

"You're too young to be telling people all over the world that you're bi and I'm too old to be…" Emily didn't continue as it occurred to her there was no point. The girl didn't look the least bit concerned. In fact she had a certain self confidence to her that she knew she never possessed at that age and her own history was hardly the basis of a good argument.

"How old were you when you knew?" Mary turned on her side propping one hand under her head. Emily shifted back until there was as much space between them as possible given the width of the double bed.

"I don't know really, I was pretty messed up when I was young." One part of her brain told her this was the understatement of all understatements.

"There wasn't a point when you just _knew_?" the girl pressed.

Emily thought about that for a long moment. "It wasn't as simple as that. I'm not sure I can explain it. We didn't use labels as easily as you do now. No one _wanted_ to be gay."

A look of confusion crossed the girl's face. "Why wouldn't you want to be what you are? When you kissed a girl for the first time, didn't you just _know_ it was right?"

"I thought you were bi?"

"I'm going to change that in my profile."

"Not on my account, I hope."

"No," Mary rolled onto her back again staring up at the ceiling. A look of secret mischief crossing her face she continued: "Sue. She lives in the next county we play basketball against each other. After the last game we got together in the shower room. It was totally hot and I really liked how she…"

"Hey, whoa," Emily sat up quickly fumbling for her boots, "too much information." She glanced back at Mary who just shrugged.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Emily paused her left foot half into her boot. "Yeah, I do." Thoughts of JJ, her warm body against her back, arm over her hip, crowded out every other thought in Emily's mind for a few moments.

"She's younger than you?" Mary lay back with her ankles crossed and one arm behind her head, totally relaxed.

"She is; by eight years, actually." It occurred to Emily she had never really thought about their age difference. "You know it's not just about age, maturity is important…" she broke off as she looked at the girl. Mary was staring at her as if Emily had made her point for her.

"Listen, I'm hardly one to lecture you," turning around again she put her bare foot up on the bed, knee raised. For a solid minute Emily rested her cheek on her knee memories of something she had not thought of in a very long time flooding her mind.

"I had kind of a fucked up experience when I was just a bit older than you," Emily paused wondering why she was thinking this let alone telling this.

It had been a couple years since Rome; years full of experimentation – quite a bit of experimentation – mostly with girls her own age. They had been all over Europe: France, Denmark and now Sweden. Her parents had been invited to spend some holiday, Easter maybe, at the country house of a Swedish government official and her husband. The woman was a friend of her mother's. The house was gorgeous, up on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley the ocean in the distance. She would've spent most of her time outside hiking and exploring except the weather was terrible. Lucky she had brought lots of books. The four older people drank, talked, argued sometimes and otherwise left her to her own devices. It was on the last morning of the visit and Emily was in the shower. She loved that shower with its dark granite tiles, multiple spray heads, glass doors. The door had slid open and someone had stepped in naked behind her. She remembered distinctly feeling no fear, not hardly any concern even, as her mother's friend, the woman whose house she was staying at, moved close behind her, touched her shoulder, smoothed back her wet hair and took the soap and cloth from her hands. Emily had not protested, done nothing at all, as the older woman slowly lathered her entire body with soap, her hands moving through the slippery suds over her shoulders and sides, down her hips. The touch had been sensual, arousing, but never directly sexual. The woman had never said a word, not even when she shampooed Emily's hair her hands massaging her scalp running from root to tip of her shoulder length hair. When all this was done, the woman had placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder and stepped out of the shower. Emily had watched through the steam smeared glass as she toweled off quickly and left. Leaning her back against the cool tiles, the hot water still streaming down, she could hardly think, let alone make sense of the experience. She wasn't disturbed, not at the intimacy of what had just happened or their obvious age difference, not even that the woman was married. The only thing that bothered her slightly was the thought that the woman was her mother's friend and even if that didn't really bother _her_, it would probably bother her mother.

"Oh, wow! Did you tell your mother?"

Emily started, raised her head from her knee. Until Mary spoke she hadn't even realized she had been talking aloud.

"Ah, no, I didn't tell her. I didn't tell anyone. Actually I found out later what they had been arguing about was my mother was having an affair with her and my father found out."

"How fucked up is that?"

Emily shoved her foot in her other boot. "It's totally fucked up and I have no idea why I just told you that. I haven't thought about it for years."

"Did it change you? Is that when you knew you liked girls?"

Her back to Mary, Emily finished lacing her boot. When she stood up, she faced the wall for a very long time before finally turning and meeting the girl's eyes.

"Did it change me?" Until just a moment ago she would probably have answered differently. "I think," her eyes went to the ceiling, the wall, while she tried to put it together in her head. "I think whatever her intention was – I'm not going to go there since I really don't know – it made me realize that sex isn't all about body parts; sometimes it can be just a touch, a look, a feeling. I never knew that until I fell in love with Jennifer. I was too busy getting it on to think about anything else."

"So you don't think that Swedish woman had sex with you?" Mary was sitting up, her eyes big.

Emily knew she needed to end this here. Gathering her weapons she paused to look at the girl. "That is none of your business," she said knowing a smile was playing at her lips. Walking out of the bedroom her mind had a different conclusion.

_Oh, she did. I just never realized until now it was on an entirely different dimensional level. _

**Later**

Mary was sitting in the driver's seat of the Range Rover looking over all the electronics and fiddling with the stereo system. When Uncle Kracker began booming from the speakers, Emily looked over her shoulder from where she was refilling her water containers.

"Hey, down just a bit," she opened the passenger side door and began stowing the water. The Remington she clamped into the police style shotgun holder between the seats and the raincoat she left on the seat.

When she came around the truck, she noticed Mary had an odd expression on her face. She was singing along to_ Rescue_, not meeting Emily's eye. Emily leaned against the truck beside her and they both looked across the garage and not at each other. Eventually Mary said what was on her mind, as Emily knew she would.

"You should take me with you."

With a sigh Emily met the girl's eyes. "I can't Mary."

"It would be so cool. I'd be a good sidekick. I'll be the Gabrielle to your Xena," her eyes travelled up and down Emily as she said this as if seeing her in leather with a sword instead of jeans and a pistol.

For a long moment Emily stared at the girl watching as the optimistic, expectant look slowly faded from her face. When Mary looked away blinking rapidly and clenching her jaw, Emily took a step forward and took her in a strong embrace.

"You've got your whole life ahead of you," she said in the girl's ear, "and you know what, I think you're off to a good start." She felt Mary hugging her back, her head on her shoulder. "You're confident, aware of who you are, comfortable with yourself and," Emily pulled back to look Mary full in the face, "I think you're kinda cool."

Mary's face broke into a broad, honest grin. "You think so?" she said.

"Yeah, I do," Emily stepped back and reached into her pocket. Taking Mary's hand, she put the cash and gold coin in her hand, closed her fist over the money.

Mary opened her hand and looked at what was in it. "Whoa, I can't take that," she held out her hand to give it back.

"Keep it," Emily closed her hand over it again. "Keep it for your college fund, OK?"

Mary nodded before shoving the money in her pocket. When she pulled her hand out she was holding a scrap of paper. "I've got something for you," she handed the paper to Emily. "It's my email, if the Internet ever comes back up, and how to find my stuff – my writing."

Emily smiled as she pocketed the paper. Leaning forward, she kissed Mary on the forehead. "Take care of yourself," she said, their faces only inches apart. "If I didn't already have a sidekick you'd be top of the list."

Mary looked away blushing.

Emily got in the Range Rover and drove out of the garage and across the dusty yard. In the rearview mirror she saw Mary raise one hand in a farewell gesture.

_I'm leaving them heartbroken in my dust everywhere I go_, she thought.

**Late Afternoon, The BAU**

Garcia squealed when the door of the single functioning elevator opened and JJ walked out. Rushing forward she caught her friend in a hard embrace still squealing incoherently. Behind them Reid and Morgan were watching and smiling.

"They almost weren't going to let me in," JJ tried to separate from the excited Garcia, "at the gate." When Garcia finally eased her grip, JJ looked over her shoulder at Morgan and Reid. "Have you heard from Emily?" her eyes moved past the two men, searching.

Garcia's elation evaporated. "I'm sorry sweetie, nothing from the great Ms. Prentiss. Not yet, at least," she added the last phrase on the end trying for a hopeful tone. "But, listen," she gripped JJ's upper arms smiling. "There's a message for you from your father," when JJ just stared at her, Garcia added, "It came by short wave radio. There's a guy with a set in the next building. He's been exchanging messages from all over."

Garcia pulled a piece of paper from one of her pockets and passed the hand written note to JJ. As she read it, a smile spread across JJ's face.

Morgan and Reid approached then, each of them hugging JJ in turn. "I'm glad Henry and your parents are OK," Morgan told JJ as he let her go.

"I take it people in rural Pennsylvania are fairly resilient?" Reid said with a smile.

JJ just smiled back at him.

**Around the same time, just north of Richmond, Virginia**

The driving had been a lot better. Emily made reasonably good time on either the I95 or the side roads. A lot of the time she had driven on the shoulder of the roads or, in case of the Interstate, right down the grassy median where she could.

There were a lot of abandoned vehicles on the roads now as cars ran out of gas. The drivers were now left to walk to where ever it was they were fleeing to. Emily encountered a few groups of people walking like so many vagabonds carrying their belongings with them. They looked at her in longing as she drove by and she made a point of meeting no one's eye.

She avoided stopping now as much as she could. Her nerves were starting to tighten in apprehension as she felt the overall mood of the road go from frantic to desperate. Despite how well armed she was, and well protected in the big Range Rover, she was still one woman alone and she was beginning to feel her vulnerability acutely.

_I did not make it this far, this close to JJ, to be murdered for the gas in my truck_, she thought.

For just a moment she wondered if JJ would be at the BAU in Quantico where she assumed she would be. If she was at her place in DC or, God forbid, had taken off to her parents in Pennsylvania it would be that much harder to find her; and she would find her she had no doubt about that.

Emily was cutting through a rest area near an interchange when she saw something disturbing. Near a gas station that was roped off and had large "NO GAS" signs around it, a group of young men had formed a circle around a young woman. The girl's clothes were disheveled and slightly torn. They were pushing her between each other in what Emily could easily see was escalating violence.

Slowing Emily saw one of the men shove the girl to the ground and reach to his waist to unbuckle his pants. She cranked the wheel over in a hard turn the tires squealing. Gunning the Range Rover she sped toward the group and slammed on the brakes.

The group turned in surprise as Emily jumped from the Range Rover, shotgun in hand. The Remington boomed as she fired a round into the air. Everyone took several steps back except one man who was holding the girl pinned by her shoulders to the ground, and the man with the unbuckled belt and partly unzipped pants.

"Let her go!" Emily stated with authority dropping the Remington to her hip to take in the two men. At the periphery of the group she noticed two young women. From their expressions she judged them to be part of the attacking group. The girl began to struggle against the man holding her. From the way he was making a halfhearted attempt to hold her, Emily assumed he was having second thoughts.

"She was looting!" the man with his pants half undone shouted.

"That justifies gang rape?" Emily moved the shotgun fractionally toward him her anger rising rapidly. The girl broke free at that moment and shoved her way through the crowd that had surrounded her. The last Emily could see of her she was headed in a dead run toward the back of gas station and a wooded area beyond.

Once the girl was gone, the mood of the group changed focusing on her. The leader – as Emily surmised – zipped up his pants and took a step toward her. The others began to close ranks behind him.

"You can't take us all on," the man sneered.

"Maybe not," Emily flicked out the shoulder stock of the Remington and brought the shotgun up to her shoulder sighting deliberately on the midsection of the leader. She panned the shotgun around the group demonstrating how with minimal movement they were all easily within her range. "I'll start with you," she brought the shotgun to bear on the leader again. "I'll aim nice and low," she let the barrel drop another inch or two, "and if you don't die in agony when I blow your spine out your back you will never walk, or screw, again."

She met his eye when she said the last her voice tight and dripping ice. He held her gaze for a moment longer before she saw his expression change. Taking advantage of the indecision she felt in the group, she took a rapid couple of steps forward and drove her right boot into his gut. When he doubled over she clubbed him in the back of the head with the stock of the shotgun.

Looking around the stunned group she noted no one went to the downed man's aid. "Bunch of fucking cowards!" she swore at them spitting on the ground for emphasis. "That's all you are, useless, fucking, no good cowards to take advantage of someone like that!" When she jerked the barrel of the shotgun sharply at them they began to lose group cohesion and separate.

The man on the ground moaned and she nailed him again with a kick to the back of the thigh. "I ought to just shoot you all," she jammed the barrel against his jaw feeling her rage start to overtake her reason, "starting with you."

The group was backing away from her slowly toward a pickup truck parked off to the side. Taking several deep breathes and forcing herself to calm down, Emily raised the shotgun from the man on the ground and began backing toward the Range Rover.

Most of the group had reached the pickup truck by now. Unconsciously she counted them as they piled either into the cab or the back. They numbered seven, eight total counting the man on the ground. They were all early twenties and gave her a wannabe gang banger, white trash vibe.

Realizing there was nothing to keep them from pursuing her once they were all back in their respective vehicles, she slung the Remington and drew her Glock. Sighting with the confidence of the well trained FBI agent she was, she took out the left front and rear tires of the truck. When the wannabe gang jumped for cover, she fired a couple gratuitous shots taking out the side mirror and shattering the windshield.

As a last parting indignity, she kicked dirt over the man on the ground before hopping back in the Range Rover and gunning it up the ramp toward the highway.

**Later at the south gate of the FBI facility Quantico, Virginia**

Emily had been surrounded by armed Marines as soon as she pulled into the road leading to the barred gate. The Marines directed her to pull off to the side a good 30 yards short of the gate. She got out of the Range Rover slowly holding up her ID. Her sidearm had then been taken along with her ID and given to a very young officer she didn't know.

He stood a few yards away with an older sergeant looking from her ID and back to her and then to the Range Rover. This had been going on for several minutes. Emily was feeling tired and downright cranky to be held up at the last minute. Her mind was so focused on getting back to JJ that her chest literally ached.

When a tall, young, black woman walked by wearing Marine fatigues and carrying an M16, she called out to her. "Staff Sergeant Crawford!"

Smiling the Marine changed direction and walked toward her. "Hey, boo," Emily said softly when the other woman was close enough to hear. They had some history together; namely a weekend spent at Crawford's rented cottage on the Potomac south of Quantico. They had met at a pool tournament pitting the FBI staff against the Marine staff. Recognizing they shared a mutual attraction they had discreetly made plans and left the gathering. Emily had hardly talked to Crawford since.

"Hey, girl, look at you!" Crawford's eyes then went to the Range Rover and she looked it up and down. "Lord, look at that ride! Where'd you get that sweet thing?"

"It's a long story. Listen, what's up with Captain America over there?"

"Him?" Crawford looked over her shoulder. "He's all up in the rules and regs. Just a couple hours ago he was all over that sweet blonde you work with."

Emily felt her heart kick her ribs. "JJ? She's here?" she started to take a step forward but Crawford held her back.

"Whoa, girl, hold on. One thing that boy hates is girls all up in his grill," she looked over her shoulder again at the young captain. "I'll go have a word with him, tell him you need to get inside to see yer girl."

Emily looked at the Marine sergeant surprised.

"I saw you two out walking one time," Crawford explained. When Emily's eyes widened even more, she elaborated. "Don't worry, girl. It's not something most straight people have a clue about even when it's right under their nose."

Emily caught her hand before she could turn away. "Thanks, Crawford, I…" she hesitated for a moment unable to continue, then finally came up with, "I'm sorry I never…"

"Don't be sorry. We had a good weekend together. That was all I was looking for. I wasn't expectin' you to be callin' me all the time after." Giving Emily's hand a squeeze she turned away.

After a few minutes, Crawford returned with her ID and weapon. She also passed Emily a temporary badge and a parking card for the Range Rover. "You're cleared to go in," she gave Emily a nudge on the shoulder. "Go on, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."

Driving the Range Rover through the gate and up the road to the complex of FBI buildings Emily began to worry. _God, I hope she's happy to see me._

Come Back to Me – David Cook

Next: Chapter 3: You Found Me


	3. You Found Me

A/N: So here's what you've been waiting for I imagine. A lot of what happens in this chapter goes back to Chapter 2 (All My Tears) of At the End of the Night. A quick review of that chapter might help you figure out what Reid is talking about (and doing) here. There's some different stuff in this chapter. Hope you like it. If you do, you can always let me know 'cause reviews are nice things for writers, believe it or not! Alice ………………………………….

**The Morning After Dark**

**Part 4: The Watch That Ends the Night**

**Chapter 3: You Found Me**

Garcia heard the crash of the breaking mug through the open door of her control room. When she got out to the hall, she saw JJ, back to her, standing immobile with the remains of a mug and its liquid contents at her feet. The elevator door was just sliding shut and in front of it stood Emily Prentiss, a goofy smile on her face.

Garcia's hand flew to her mouth and she gasped dramatically. She barely registered Morgan and Reid standing at the glass doors watching the scene in lobby.

A very long moment seemed to pass until JJ launched herself at Emily. Running the six or so steps between them she jumped into Emily's arms her legs wrapping around the other woman's waist. Emily caught her letting out something between a squeak and a grunt as she supported JJ with her hands under JJ's behind. They stared at each other with matching expressions of such uninhibited joy that Garcia felt tears start in her eyes. She moved to stand next to Reid and Morgan sighing as Morgan put an arm around her shoulders.

"Let's give them their moment," Morgan turned away and slowly the other two followed his lead.

Tenderly, sweetly, JJ smoothed the loose strands of dark hair back from Emily's eyes her fingertips trailing to her lover's cheek. "I was wrong," Emily said her throat so tight with emotion she could hardly speak. "You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

JJ gave a short bark of laughter and kissed her then; unrestrained, totally without any thought other than wanting the woman in her arms and needing to feel her on every possible level.

Her arms straining, yet without breaking the kiss, Emily eased JJ back to the floor. Her entire body was responding to JJ, her hands grabbing hard at her waist. JJ's hands were clutching at her shirt collar holding Emily tight to her. Eventually Emily had to break the kiss as the pressure on her lungs became too much.

Pulling back from JJ she felt tears slip from her eyes as something between a sob and a gasp caught in her throat. Embarrassed by the intensity of what she was feeling, Emily buried her face in JJ's shoulder.

"It's OK, Em," JJ held her tight. "I've got you," her voice was strong, steady. "I won't ever let you go, you know that?" she felt Emily nod against her shoulder. "Good. Don't ever think it's a promise I can't keep." With one hand she was rubbing Emily's neck and shoulders. "You are always safe with me; always, always loved by me."

Her words fractured by soft sobs, Emily barely managed to get out "I love you, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have run from you," before her voice gave out on her.

"That's all over now, all in the past," JJ said softly, directly in Emily's ear. "You're here now and I love you, that's all that matters. OK?"

Again Emily nodded against her shoulder. For a long time they held each other Emily breathing deeply as the strength and tension drained from her. She could feel JJ so strong and solid against her and wished if the world was going to end it would end right here, right now. Thinking she should tell JJ that thought, she swallowed hard but knew her voice was still lost somewhere beyond reach. It didn't matter anyway; all she really wanted was to stand here, held by JJ, absorbing her strength and love.

**Later**

With hesitant steps Emily approached the table in the break area. She glanced at JJ and her three friends then looked at the floor unable at the moment to meet their eyes. Ignoring her reluctance, Garcia grabbed her in one of her big hugs.

"It's good to see you, Garcia," Emily patted the shorter woman's back.

Garcia held her at arm's length. "Look at you, girl. All tanned and healthy looking," this of course was complimentary and pointedly not mentioning her red eyes and tired demeanor. "I'm glad you came back to us," Emily knew the 'us' meant all of them including JJ.

Morgan hugged her next slapping her back solidly in a guy-to-guy kind of way. "Good to have you back with us, Emily." When he let her go, she felt herself grinning at him.

Reid was next and when he hugged her, Emily felt a tension in the younger man. Looking him in the eye she asked: "Is everything alright, Reid?" With a long sigh he stepped back from her. Emily waited for him to answer but it was JJ who replied.

"I was at Guerin's when it all happened." That got Emily's full attention considering the last time she was there things had not been very friendly. "I went there looking for you; trying to find out where you had gone." Emily was surprised JJ would say all this in front of their three friends.

"OK," Emily said slowly waiting for JJ to finish.

"Both Guerin and Doctor Robichaud collapsed; we think it was the bomb in Mexico City. Doctor Robichaud died during the night." JJ looked between Emily and Reid when she said this. She had already told Reid earlier and knew he had been troubled by the news though he tried not to show it.

Emily took a seat at the table beside Reid. She looked at him; spoke to him, leaving the others, even JJ, out for now. "Did you feel it? Did you feel it when it happened?" She was remembering Odalis stumbling, falling to one knee as she herself felt a sharp pain in her head.

"Yeah," Reid replied. "I pretty well fainted; I'm not sure I can explain…" he had been looking down as he spoke now he looked up directly at Emily. "Did you?"

"Yeah, I did," Emily answered. They sat staring at each other both of them remembering that rainy day at the wrecked house.

"Guerin's still in a coma," JJ filled in the last piece of information. Filling a mug with coffee, JJ placed it in front of Emily and stood behind her one hand massaging her shoulder.

Emily took a sip of coffee then a second. "So what do we know," she directed this question to Garcia.

Garcia moved to the head of the table. "This briefing won't have much of my usual pizzazz," she tried to smile, "so bear with me." Behind her was a map of the United States and to one side was a white board. "The power is back on in all of Michigan, western New York, Maine, parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, and some of the mid west border states. As far as anyone knows, there is still no telephone, cell phone or Internet. There is very little information coming from Europe except that the EU has already mobilized to send aid to Mexico City. We don't know much about the airlines or anything else about transportation. Needless to say we are under a national state of emergency."

"I heard the vice president is confirmed dead but nothing about the president," Emily prompted when Garcia paused.

Garcia pointed to an item on the white board. It had a time and date and the word 'official'. "There was an announcement from the White House this afternoon that was repeated by short wave and over the parts of the emergency broadcast system that are functioning. The president is in critical but stable condition, location unknown and secret."

Emily sighed heavily and reached up to touch JJ's hand on her shoulder. "Is there any word on what happened? Who did this?"

Garcia just shook her head.

**Some hours later**

Emily was dreaming.

"I want to make love to you," JJ's sweet, husky voice was saying in her ear and a warm, firm hand moved over her hip and down her bare thigh. "I don't care who knows," the hand moved back up the inside of her thigh to tease at the elastic band of her underwear. "I missed you so much," warm breath tickled Emily's neck as her shoulder was pulled back and she was shifted onto her back.

"You smell so good," JJ's warm mouth was at her throat as one hand moved inside her shirt and the other reached into her underpants and slipped downward to caress her mound. "I want you so bad," JJ breathed out trailing her lips over Emily's jaw.

Coming slowly awake, Emily felt JJ's mouth on hers and a hand between her legs parting her folds and touching her directly. She felt a sharp breath escape her as JJ began kissing her hungrily and two fingers circled her clitoris slowly, demandingly. She didn't bother to open her eyes, just tangled a hand in JJ's hair opening herself to both the kiss and the sweet caress.

Emily's mind ranged around trying to put a location to their current situation: she was on her back on a soft leather couch partly under a blanket and completely enveloped in JJ's beautiful scent. The woman almost on top of her was unmistakable in her breath and touch. Never could she mistake the feel of her body, the smell of her hair. As she realized from the hum of the air circulation vent above them, and the squeak of the old couch under her that they were in JJ's office, Emily realized she didn't care.

"You are so beautiful," JJ was looking down at her as she moved her body completely over Emily without letting her hand lose contact with the woman below her. Emily supported JJ, hands at her hips, gazing sleepily up at her lover. She let her eyes drop shut as JJ's mouth covered hers again and an eager tongue pressed for entrance just as an equally eager hand moved lower and began to slide inside her.

_Such a beautiful dream; such an amazing woman_, Emily's mind allowed as she sighed in total ease and relaxation returning JJ's kiss.

A sharp rap on the office door startled them both. With a grunt of disappointment, JJ collapsed on Emily her head turning to the side so she could utter a sharp "what?"

"I'm sorry," Garcia's voice from the other side of the door sounded like she really meant it. "There's someone here to see you, JJ."

Pushing herself up with both arms, JJ gazed down at the woman below her who seemed only half in reality. "I'm going to continue this later, Em," she said to her sleepy lover as she placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Oh, I don't doubt that," Emily replied as she watched JJ move from the couch to her desk. Pulling open as drawer, JJ found a box of baby wipes and snapped one out. The two women stared at each other as JJ wiped her hands the tension of unfinished business between them.

"Coming, Garcia," a teasing, suggestive smile played at the corners of JJ's mouth as she dropped the used cloth in the waste basket and went to the door. When the door closed behind JJ, Emily dropped her head back with a huge sigh. _What a sweet way to be woken up_, she thought, _and what a stupid time to get interrupted._

Pushing herself up off the couch, she found her pants and pulled them on. Running a hand through her hair she found it still slightly damp from the shower she had taken, she couldn't remember when, but obviously before she had come into JJ's office to rest on the couch. Adjusting her shirt, she opened the door and went toward the glass doors to the main part of the BAU bull pen her sock feet quiet on the floor.

Next to the break table just inside the room she found the two people she least expected to see. Doctor Manuela Grayson was smiling as she watched JJ hugging Devin Tergensen. JJ was holding the red headed woman tightly whispering softly in her ear. Confusion washed over Emily as she saw the pained expression on Tergensen's face as she held onto JJ not letting her go. Grayson caught her eye her look indulgent and sympathetic at the same time. When JJ finally released Tergensen and held her at arm's length, Emily's spark of jealousy was relieved by the look of compassion on her lover's face.

Tergensen nodded at something JJ had said and stared at the floor.

"It's good to see you again, Emily," Grayson smiled at the dark haired agent before turning to the other three people in the room she had never met. JJ introduced Morgan, Garcia and Reid.

"I'm sorry about Doctor Robichaud," Reid held Grayson's hand blinking as he met her eyes. Grayson patted his hand in return before slowly turning away.

"I'll make some coffee," Garcia broke the awkward silence turning to the coffee maker on the counter. Still no one said anything for a long moment until Mani Grayson finally spoke her eyes going to Emily where she stood at the far end of the table.

"We need your help."

"Me?" Emily looked around realizing every eye was on her.

"We need you to try to reach Guerin because we can't," Grayson elaborated.

"Me?" Emily repeated no more clued in than she was a moment ago. Her eyes went from Grayson to Tergensen who had taken a seat at the table and sat staring at her own folded hands. "What makes you think I can…"

"She was in your head," Tergensen's voice was rough and urgent and Emily realized the woman she remembered as the bossy DHS agent was gone, replaced by this vulnerable, desperate young woman.

"And you're strong Emily, "Grayson continued. "I think you have the natural ability."

Emily felt her mouth drop open slightly as she gazed at the people around her. When her eyes met JJ's, she found her lover looking at her with a bit of both surprise and interest.

"I don't think I can do what you want me to," Emily looked at Grayson as she spoke slowly, honestly.

The other woman held her gaze for a long moment before looking away deflated. There was silence again for a long moment between the people around the table the only sound the gurgling of the coffee maker.

"I think I can," a soft voice said and all eyes shifted to the other end of the table. "I think I can reach her," Reid added.

"You?" Tergensen's tone was clearly incredulous. "She doesn't do…"

"Devin!" Grayson's sharp rebuke cut off the other woman.

Everyone was now watching Reid, watching as he reached into his messenger bag and took out a roll of paper. With deliberate steps, Reid moved around the table to where Tergensen sat and, crimping the large sheet of paper, placed it directly in front of her holding one corner.

Tergensen took one quick look at what was drawn on the paper and recoiled backward her shoulder contacting Reid's elbow.

"How did you? When did you see…" the questions tumbled out of Tergensen. "She didn't take you there! She's never taken me…"

Grayson glanced at the drawing and then up at Reid. When she spoke it was clear she was working hard to control her voice. "Doctor Reid that is what Guerin calls the _Grey Plain_. It's the place between life and death. She should never have taken…"

"_Me as I really am_," Reid said slowly, softly and held his ground as both Tergensen and Grayson stared at him in disbelief.

Emily moved to the table and pulled the paper away from Tergensen. She felt JJ looking over her shoulder as she stared at the hand drawn image of a woman in blood splattered armour holding a sword. She found herself equally surprised, but not just at Reid's revelation; she was amazed at how truly he had captured Guerin's fierce expression.

"That day in the rain at the wrecked house?" she asked Reid as if no one else were in the room. "You and Guerin were drawing in the back of the Escalade. She did that sketch of me you gave JJ."

Reid nodded. "I never meant for anyone to see this except her," Reid's tone was forceful. He glanced at Morgan who was watching him closely. "If you don't believe me," he directed this comment at Tergensen as he took the drawing back from Emily and rolled it, "there's nothing I can do about that. But I think I can reach her. I'm not sure I can explain why, I just know."

**Later**

"Oh, wow, Emily!"

Emily felt JJ's hand slip from her waist to her butt where she gave a little squeeze. Thumbing the remote a second time Emily made the Range Rover flash its lights again.

"I am_ so_ riding in that!" Morgan barged past JJ toward the passenger side of the Range Rover.

"You are _so_ not!" JJ beat him to the door and turned her body to block him.

Emily held Morgan's gaze as she went around to the driver's side. "Ok, alright," Morgan stepped back his hands up in submission. "Your ride, your girl, I get it."

JJ moved the black raincoat off the seat as she got into the Range Rover. Her eyes roamed over the interior taking in all the electronics and the shotgun in its clamp. Emily unfolded a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on against the bright morning sun her grin at JJ playful.

"I hope you never cease to amaze me, Em, cause everyday you just keep getting hotter and hotter."

Emily laughed as she followed the Escalade out of the parking lot.

**Around the same time, somewhere else**

Somewhere Guerin was dreaming, remembering.

When Claire walked in from the balcony, empty wine bottle and glass in one hand, and her tank top and bra in the other, Guerin was asleep on her side on the big bed. The street noise faded as she moved farther into the hotel suite only the odd moped horn and shouted call in French reaching her ears. The hotel was just off the busy promenade with the Mediterranean beyond. Guerin had hardly cared, so interested in getting something real to eat and washing off the dust of Afghanistan she had thought of little else.

Running her hand across the rows of ribbons on Guerin's uniform tunic where it was draped carefully over a chair, Claire thought about how she had greeted her lover at the airport, fed her at the café in the lobby of the hotel, and brought her upstairs to their room where she had made love to her until Guerin was too sleepy to respond.

Touching the captain's bars on the tunic, Claire's hand then slipped to the first ribbon in the top row; the one that represented the commendation for valour Guerin had received only months before. Like today at the airport when Guerin had turned away from her passionate kiss, that night at the awards reception at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Guerin had been aloof and reserved in her uniform. And something else too, Claire remembered: smug. They had sat at a table with two other junior officers and their wives and Guerin had made something of a game out of leaning over to Claire and whispering to her every time a more senior officer walked by wearing less decorations than she had.

Claire had indulged her game, plotting to herself and waiting for her moment. That moment came when Guerin needed to visit the washroom. Trailing behind Guerin she had followed her into the beautifully appointed facilities, all marble tile and chrome fixtures and, moving quickly, went right into the stall with her.

Guerin didn't have time to complain as Claire removed her uniform tunic with all her gleaming, coveted medals and hung it on the back of the door. Not saying a word she pressed her body against the shorter woman shoving her against the wall as she reached between her legs. Guerin's expression changed, her eyes going darker, as Claire kneaded her pubic mound through her pants.

Taking Guerin's right wrist in her free hand, she pinned Guerin's hand against the wall above her head. Guerin gave a little sniff of amusement doing nothing to resist. Moving ever so slowly she touched her lips softly to Guerin's jaw, neck and throat; anywhere but directly on her mouth. When Claire opened her button and zipper, and jammed her hand down the front of Guerin's pants, Guerin gave a soft "Claire," of warning.

Grasping a rough handful of Guerin's pubic hair, Claire pushed her lover even harder against the wall as she finally kissed her. Guerin groaned into the kiss when the firm pads of Claire's first two fingers began lightly rubbing her clitoris.

Claire deepened the kiss, her tongue running along the bottom of Guerin's upper lip and then exploring inward. It did not take long before Guerin's knees began to weaken under the passion of Claire's kiss and the movement of her fingers. When Claire reached farther down feeling the slick, wet, warmth of her lover's arousal she smiled against Guerin's mouth.

"You always want me, don't you?"

Guerin didn't answer, couldn't answer, just groaned gritting her teeth as Claire pushed two long, firm fingers inside her and held her hard against the wall. Not moving anything but her eyes she stared at Guerin her eyes full of power and lust with just a hint of playfulness.

"Claire," this time it was not said in warning but in pleading. "Please, Claire. Don't stop."

Letting a small laugh escape her, Claire kissed Guerin again on her mouth then neck and throat at the same time as she moved her hand in a strong rhythm – a beat just shy of being rough – between her legs.

Claire had brought Guerin very close to climax when they both heard the outer door open as someone came into the washroom. Claire did not stop, in fact she quickened the pace of her thrusting, as the unknown woman entered the stall beside them. Pressing her face into Claire's shoulder as she began to come, Guerin could not suppress a squeak of intense pleasure. At the very same moment in the next stall, the toilet flushed. Shuddering, Guerin moaned deep in her chest the sound of the swirling water and the banging door covering her orgasm.

The woman from the next stall, a British army sergeant from the insignia on her dress uniform, looked up as Guerin exited the stall pulling on her tunic. "Ma'am," the sergeant nodded to Guerin when she noticed the captain's bars. Guerin ignored her as she splashed water on her flushed face and toweled herself dry with a soft cotton towel from the pile next to the sink. Dropping the towel on the counter, Guerin pivoted on her heel and stalked from the bathroom.

As the door swung shut behind Guerin's retreating back, Claire came out of the stall. Her eyes met the British sergeant's in the mirror all full of smug satisfaction. "Miss," the sergeant nodded to Claire watching in fascination as Claire soaped her hands into a froth and began carefully and graphically washing the first two fingers of her right hand in long soapy strokes. Picking up the towel Guerin had discarded; Claire dried her hands and left the bathroom throwing a quick, teasing look over her shoulder as she went.

Finding another wine glass on the table, Claire threw back the last mouthful it contained as she approached the bed. Stretching out her full length beside Guerin, she ran just the nails of her fingers along the other woman's bare thigh, over the shorts that clothed her hip, and then along her bare back. Guerin made no response even when Claire whispered in her ear, "I'm going to make love to you whether you are asleep or not."

Moving back just enough to allow her hands easy access, Claire began caressing Guerin's back in long strokes with her palm, knuckles and finger tips in alternating touches. Her bare foot she trailed along the calf of the leg Guerin had straight out under her. "My hands all over you," Claire breathed, "you are mine."

Guerin did not move, did not react as Claire ran a finger tip along her earlobe, along her jaw, her bare neck just at the hairline. Across her shoulder, down her arm where it rested at her side hiding her breast. "My sleepy girl," down her back more deliberately now, Claire reached into Guerin's shorts began kneading her firm muscled behind. She let her fingers tease between Guerin's buttocks very lightly and low enough that she felt just a touch of pubic hair.

"I know you like that," Claire whispered when she felt Guerin twitch almost imperceptibly. With her finger tips again, she traced Guerin's thigh where it was pulled up at a right angle to her other leg. On the inside and outside and back to the leg opening of her shorts she ran her hand. Reaching in she could feel her lover's pelvic bone and the top of her pubic triangle. Caressing Guerin's side and buttock, Claire began moving down her back kissing softly as she went. Reaching her hip, she took Guerin's hand and pulled the other woman over onto her back. Guerin lay there eyes closed, breathing softly as if asleep.

Claire pulled off her lover's loose shorts then removed her own pants. Pushing Guerin's legs apart, she moved over her taking the limp hands and raising them over Guerin's head. With both hands she then caressed her from shoulder to pubic mound taking special care to circle each of her lover's breasts and just graze her nipples with her knuckles. "I always know what you like, what you want," Claire breathed into Guerin's neck as she lightly moved her groin against the woman below her.

She knew Guerin could feel the tickling of her own pubic hair against hers as she moved her hips back and forth over her. With one hand and then the other she reached down to pull Guerin's knees up around her hips. Supporting herself on one elbow, Claire moved one hand down Guerin's flat belly and between her legs. "I know where you like my hands to be, know what you like them to do," she whispered as she trailed her mouth along Guerin's collarbone and down toward her breast. As she caught the nipple between her lips, tugged and released, her fingers dipped just into Guerin enough to feel her wetness, then ran upward inside her warm fold to catch and hold her clit between her two fingers.

Guerin gave a soft moan then which Claire smothered with a deep kiss her tongue pushing into Guerin's mouth as her fingers moved back and forth alongside her lover's hardening clit. She kept moving steadily her hips following what her hand was doing as she kissed Guerin's throat then kissed and sucked each of her aroused nipples. "I know what you need," Claire ran her tongue between Guerin's small breasts and up to the base of her throat. Letting her hand slip lower and feeling how wet she had made her, Claire let out a sigh of longing as she said, cheek to Guerin's jaw, mouth next to her ear, "I'm going put my fingers inside you," she began to push into her lover's wet opening penetrating her shallowly. "And…" the next word – the verb -- was said directly into Guerin's ear causing Guerin to hitch her breath, "… you so deep and so long," Claire moved her beautiful long fingers deeper in then drew out again, "you won't know if you're dreaming or awake."

**Current time, Guerin's house**

"I think she's dreaming," Grayson was watching the monitor over the table as Guerin's heartbeat and brain activity started to slow and return to the normal resting rate she had been experiencing for the most part since she had collapsed.

"I hope it's nice," Tergensen said a mix of sarcasm and longing in her voice.

They had moved Guerin into the lab and hooked her up to the more sophisticated monitoring tools. Beside the table, Grayson laid out several loaded syringes on a stainless steel tray in case they were needed.

"I don't like the thought of him touching her," Tergensen said, her voice petulant.

"Devin, Guerin can touch whomever she wants," Grayson looked up at the other woman surprised. "She's not your property."

"More like the other way around," Tergensen responded her voice low.

Grayson stared at the Tergensen for a long moment. "What you two do is between you and has nothing to do with me."

"No, it doesn't, does it?" the sarcasm was back in the younger woman's voice.

"My relationship with Guerin has never been sexual and you know that," Grayson said flatly becoming annoyed with Tergensen.

"Why not? That's what I don't get? With all she can do…" Tergensen trailed off looking down at Guerin on the table.

"Just look at yourself, that's why."

Grayson and Tergensen left the lab a few minutes later and joined the others in the great room. Grayson was about to say something to Reid when she noticed Carmo approaching from the other side of the room. Emily noticed the tall dark haired woman at the same time and stiffened. JJ took a step in front of Emily, but it was Garcia who defused the situation.

"Hi! Remember me?" Garcia stood directly in Carmo's path.

Carmo cocked her head looking down at the brightly dressed woman in front of her. "User Garcia," she said, her face breaking into a huge smile.

"That's right," Garcia reached out a hand to touch Carmo amending the touch at the last second to just a light tap on her forearm. "I have something I need your help with," Garcia opened the top of her tote bag so the other woman could see her lap top, "where's your computers?"

Carmo looked slightly confused as she looked over her shoulder at the secret door she had just come out of. "Show me?" Garcia said and Carmo nodded turning to lead Garcia away.

JJ saw and felt Emily relax as Garcia and Carmo disappeared into Carmo's basement lair.

"OK, so," Grayson started getting everyone's attention. "Are you sure you want to do this Doctor Reid?" Reid just nodded where he sat on the couch next to Morgan. "I'm not sure how to explain this, but you are going to need someone to back you up." As Grayson talked Emily went to the bar. "You need someone you can trust, someone you've always relied on to support you and…"

"…have your back. I got it," Morgan looked from Reid to Grayson. Emily returned at that moment with a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue label and six shot glasses. She poured out the shots and handed them around.

Standing around the coffee table, Emily looked at each of the other five in turn as she raised the shot glass. "Good luck, Reid."

Reid nodded and downed the liquor. Grimacing, he looked at Morgan then Grayson. "I'm ready."

**A few minutes later**

Emily and JJ were lurking in the hall listening to Mani Grayson talking from inside the lab.

"Derek, all you need to do is think about Spencer and his being your friend. Just remember the good times you've had together and if the time comes when he needs your help – you'll know on an instinctive level if that occurs – picture in your mind helping him up; him grabbing your hand and you hanging on. OK?"

"Got it," Morgan looked at Reid. "Man, I never thought I'd being doing this with you, Reid."

"Spencer," Grayson turned her attention to Reid. "Do you have an idea of how you want to approach this?"

"I do," Reid hesitated before continuing. "I probably shouldn't say this, but I kinda know…" he trailed off for a moment his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. "There's a place. She called it her secret place."

Grayson drew in a sharp breath and beside her Tergensen's face went red. With a huff, Tergensen stormed from the room. As she passed Emily and JJ at the door, she said, "I'm going to check on Carmo and Garcia."

"What's her problem?" Morgan looked at Reid.

Reid shifted on the stool where he sat beside Morgan. "She's jealous. You can feel it?" he looked at Grayson.

"Oh, yes," Grayson shifted back to serious. "Don't go to that place directly, Spencer. Start off by thinking about Guerin. And think about how you felt about her."

Reid nodded. Taking a deep breath, he directed his attention at the woman lying in front of him and closed his eyes.

He thought about how he had first seen her as she walked into the conference room at the BAU. How her eyes had travelled around the people in the room aloof yet curious. He realized as he thought this that having the ability she had made everyone that much more interesting. Her gaze had settled on him for a moment and he thought now she was seeing him for his potential and may have paid him more attention then but for the distraction of Emily.

Reid remembered how Guerin's eyes had gone to Emily and her attention had stayed there while Tergensen did her thing. There had been so much going on. Guerin was intrigued by Emily that was for sure. He felt again the stab of jealousy he had felt when Guerin ignored him for his colleague. As he thought about this -- and tried to define his attraction, and it was attraction he assured himself that he felt for Guerin -- he felt himself slip a notch deeper.

Guerin was a mix of masculine and feminine in a way he had never really thought that much about before. He knew within himself he had the same qualities and that was what made him unique. With Guerin, it was also a physical thing: her curious eyes, the way she turned her head when she looked at him, the muscles in her arms when he saw her in her tank top, even the scars on her back.

Another notch deeper he felt himself slip. Reaching out with his mind he felt a presence close yet just out of reach. Focusing again, he thought about that day in the rain how Guerin had taken his hands in hers – how odd her damaged hand had felt – and they had looked at the landscape around them and the people in it. Emily's powerful energy loomed into his mind and he felt it mingle with Guerin's in an oddly equal yet opposite sort of way that was almost incomprehensible.

He seized on this as Guerin's thought from that day popped into his mind: "That's Prentiss. You do not want to go there." Pushing hard he tried to reach for what was behind that thought. There was a sort of dark delight that was tied to attraction that he understood on the base level he barely ever let himself go to because he felt a similar sort of attraction to Guerin. There was also something else. Something in the way that Guerin recognized Emily as similar and equal and beyond that there was even more. When he reached for this he felt himself struggle and almost lose his concentration for the first time.

"Hang on, I'm right here. I got you, dude," he felt Morgan's strong energy beside him. Underneath that was a question. A 'how are you doing? It's been so long…' sort of question and he realized that far more time had passed then he had realized.

Concentrating again he reached for the hot energy he had just glimpsed. When he touched it he was surprised yet not surprised to find it was not just physical attraction, but a dark sexual energy. Again he struggled with the feelings it evoked. He could feel Emily there in Guerin's mind and, much stronger, Guerin herself. The energy was wrapped around her and her realized the only way to get to it, to truly touch it, was to let it take him.

When he released, submitted himself and let the energy take him, he felt a surge of pleasure course through him. It was dark, oh, so enveloping and so very intense. He wanted badly to let it take him, to ride the wave that was swelling under and around him yet he knew it was laced with a dangerous power. When he recognized this, his mind went to the picture of Guerin in her armour. Slipping even deeper he felt Guerin all around and inside him; so powerful, so dark, so dangerous.

He gasped, terror slamming into him as he saw her through the eyes of the men she had killed. Saw her with the knife, slicing, cutting, killing. He felt her delight, how her dark energy came from this deep, bloody well. Blood on her hands, blood on the knife, he was inside the mind of an unrepentant killer and knew he had gone in the wrong direction.

Spiraling down he reached out, desperate for Morgan, for something, anything but this horror. Relief flooded him as he felt Morgan grab on to him and begin to pull him back. Knowing that if he came out of this now, exited back into reality he would never get back to this place, he reached out feeling around him for the powerful energy and not the horror he had touched earlier. He found it there and lunging for it, he pictured in his mind the beach with the iridescent green island just offshore.

He was standing barefoot in the warm sand and the air, oh God the air, he sucked into his hungry lungs was so clean, so sweet he just closed his eyes and breathed. He felt the warmth of the sun on his face, heard the rush and fall of the waves at the water's edge just beside him.

Opening his eyes again he tried to take in everything around him: the salty smell of the water, the waning sunlight as the sun dipped into the horizon ahead of him and on a parallel with the beach, the sand around his toes. Taking a couple steps he went to the water, walked in just up to his calves. The sand was soft under the water and his feet sank deeply. The water felt incredible as it sloshed around his legs. Cool like the skim of ice across his skin yet warm like the touch of a lover's hand. Feeling overwhelmed, he closed his eyes again trying to settle his mind.

When he opened his eyes he turned away from the green island to the setting sun as it slipped into the ocean to his right. Orange, as clear as colour and as real as sensation, bathed everything around him. Delighted, he drank it in breathing slowly. He became aware then of another scent behind and around the smell of the ocean and the warm sand. There was a scent of green growing things; plants, flowers and trees. Looking down he saw footprints in the sand. They came up out of the water and he followed them with his eyes as they crossed the sand toward the shrubs at the edge of the beach.

The last of the sun was dying as he followed the footprints up the beach and through a gap in the aromatic sea grape bushes. He came out into an clearing and immediately his sense of hearing was piqued as he heard music. It was coming from a house in front of him. For a long time he stood staring at the house. It had a wide verandah across the front with a rail patched here and there with beautiful bougainvillea in amazingly deep, luscious colours. Around the area in front of the house were other flowering plants: roses, hydrangeas, even an incongruous lilac.

Lights were on in the house now as dusk settled in. Looking up he watched stars appear in the sky above. Movement caught his eye and he moved toward the house and up the wide steps onto the verandah. To his right was a bench swing suspended from the ceiling with a head-dented pillow at one end. To the left was a table and chairs, one chair pushed out as if someone had just gotten up and walked away only moments before. There was a glass on the table and a book, opened to almost the middle, and placed face down to hold the reader's place. When he took a step closer to the table he could smell the citrusy lime beverage that had been in the glass. The book's title was "_Barometer Rising_" by an author he didn't know.

There was clunk of pots from the house and looking up her could see into the kitchen through the open wood slat blinds. Someone was moving around inside. Going to the entrance, he pulled open the old screen door and stepped inside. The door swung shut behind him with a slap of old wood on old wood accompanied by the creak of the ancient pivoting locking hinge.

He stood for a moment just inside the door taking in the warmth and simple comfort of the house. Music surrounded him and he closed his eyes to kd lang singing about a burned out basement and feeling like getting high. The notes of the song seemed to bounce from the heavy wood rafters to the scuffed hardwood floor. He opened his eyes when he heard a second voice join the recording.

Guerin was back to him working in the kitchen area. She wore shorts low on her hips and a pale yellow tank top that set off her tanned skin. Even at this distance he could smell her skin a tantalizing mix of warm sand, salt water and just a bit of sweat. He wanted to approach her and touch her like a returning lover would, but knew this was presumption on his part. Instead he moved to stand on her right side leaning against the counter. For a moment he thought she hadn't noticed him then he saw a slight smile on her mouth.

"You found me."

She met his eyes then and he saw not the powerful dark energy but the warmth of a close, loved friend. Her hand released the knife she had been holding over the cutting board and he covered it with his own holding tight for just a moment before letting go.

"Do you like green pepper?"

Reid laughed, relaxed in her presence.

They cut meat and vegetables to make a stir fry Reid enjoying every scent and tactile sensation the food brought. When the meal was ready, Guerin carried the two plates and utensils out to the table on the porch. Reid followed with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. He poured for them both, watching as Guerin took a first sip. When he tasted the wine he couldn't help drawing a breath in surprise at the intensity. The food was the same way – everything was overwhelmingly delicious.

"Why is everything here so…" he started to ask, curious.

"Amplified?" Guerin completed the question. "I'm not really sure."

Sipping the wine with its warm, deep, red colour surrounding his nose with earthy goodness, a thought occurred to him.

"Is this heaven?"

The question disturbed Guerin. Taking the wine bottle, she left the table. After a beat, Reid followed finding her on the beach at the water's very edge. He sat beside her as they had sat together that day that seemed so long ago.

"I know what you want from me."

He didn't actually know what she meant until she ran the tips of her fingers across his knee and down his shin. The touch was amazingly sensual and innocent all at once. His mind went in leaps and bounds: touching her, kissing her, leading her towards the bed he had seen at the back of the beach house with the tousled sheets and lived in, loved in, look. He had imagined her warm scent all over the pillows.

"I always kinda liked kissing guys," Guerin's hand patted his knee, pulled away as she met his eyes, her own playful and sensual all in one look, "but it's girls I make love to."

When she grinned Reid felt the touch of her dark sexual energy. They stared out at the green island as the moon rose to their left. After a time Guerin spoke again.

"We are something to everyone yet not everything to all of them," she said cryptically.

Reid took the wine bottle from where Guerin had planted it in the sand, took a sip. "Deep, man, deep," he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Guerin laughed and swatted him on the shoulder. "Do you like it here? My secret place?" she looked at him her chin down and her eyes looking up through her brows.

"God, yes," he answered. "It's beautiful."

Looking away, Guerin smiled with just a crook of the corner of her mouth. "It's not heaven though. I'll never be there, Claire is, but I'll never be. I have my memories – that's all I have." She moved to get up, "Let's go; let's go back. It's time."

She stood up and reached down to him. This time when she pulled him to his feet she did not move away from the closeness of his body next to her. This time she leaned into it, into to him. One hand still holding his, she reached with her other to grasp in his hair as she pulled his mouth to hers.

He felt the kiss: soft at first and so sweetly sensual. Her tongue traced his bottom lip teased just inside touching against his tongue. He kissed her back as he felt the sand beneath his feet and reality, such as it was, slip away.

"Catch him," a voice said and Reid felt strong hands under his arms as he fell backward. After a moment he opened his eyes, blinked. He was looking up at Guerin on the table watching her arm move. When he turned his head he saw Morgan behind him, holding him in a loose embrace.

"Welcome back. You've been gone quite a while," Morgan said with a smile.

Struggling to his feet Reid leaned over the woman on the medical table. Guerin was breathing deeply her eyes still closed. Grayson finished administering the contents of a syringe into Guerin's IV. "She's coming around," Grayson said glancing at the monitors. "She'll be alright."

"I know," Reid said as her gently touched Guerin's hair at her temple.

Guerin opened her eyes then looking up at him. With just the tip of her right index finger she touched the stubble on his cheek, trailed her finger down to his lip.

"Seriously, dude," she gave a soft laugh and closed her eyes again.

Morgan was looking at Reid curiously and was about to say something when JJ appeared at the door to the lab. She paused, seemed to reconsider what she was going to say when she saw Reid, Morgan and Grayson leaning over the table no longer apprehensive. "If you have a minute," she began. "Garcia and Carmo found something; something to do with what happened."

You Found Me – The Fray

Next, Chapter 4: The Way I


	4. The Way I

A/N: This chapter takes the action (both kinds) up a few more notches. Hope you like it; it would be nice if you let me know – I always appreciate your comments. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me this far. Like last story I am really just getting started. Alice ….

**The Morning After Dark**

**Chapter 4: The Way I**

Reid nodded his thanks to Morgan and took a sip of the energy drink. _Vile_, was his first thought, yet he drank it anyway. Everything around him seemed fuzzy and he fought to clear his thoughts. The non-reality of Guerin's secret place was slipping away from him and he wanted so much to keep it. As he felt Morgan watching him concerned, he let a last thought trickle from his mind: _Why would she want to leave?_ He hoped some time he could ask her.

"Take your time," Morgan touched his knee and went to stand next to Emily in front of all the computer screens. They were in the basement; in the odd room that looked half like Garcia's "office" at the BAU and half like a messy teenager's bedroom. He was sitting on a comfortable couch and in front of him Garcia, Emily, JJ, and the strange tall woman were talking in low tones about something to do with images that had been captured just before the last of the power had died two days ago.

He felt Tergensen before she appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Gracing him with a long stare backed by jealousy and something like contempt, she went to join the others. Slowly he followed.

"Guerin is sleeping," Tergensen said this to no one in particular. "Mani is going to stay with her." She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to make her expression neutral though Reid could feel her tension.

"Bring that up on the big monitor," Emily directed and the screen in the center began to show words although there were many places where there were letters or whole sections missing to heavy static.

"We were able to recreate part of it," Garcia said. "It took hours for the application to sort through all the possibilities." She nodded at Carmo who hit a series of keys and the static on the monitor began to be replaced by letters and words. "I'm not sure what it is."

_**For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. **_

_**You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.**_

As the text moved through his mind, Reid felt something familiar though with his brain as tired and fuzzy as it was he could not put his finger on it.

"Reminds me of a poem," Emily said

"Psalm," Carmo said softly.

The pieces fell into place for Reid. "Psalm 90," he said and began to recite.

_**We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. **_

_**The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. **_

_**Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. **_

_**Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.**_

Garcia's hands were moving on the keyboard filling in the blanks of the missing text. When Reid began to continue past this point, she stopped him.

"Hold on Bible Boy. That's not what's next."

Reid skipped over the next couple verses in his mind; picked up where he could see just enough on the screen to show him where to start again.

_**May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands.**_

Another screen came to life with various images of destruction above which were the words "The Work of Our Hands".

"That's the second part of it," Garcia stated flatly, "just image after image of Armageddon."

"Terrorist manifesto?" JJ asked

"If they are, they are a whole new breed," Emily looked at the others.

"Yeah, Christian terrorists," Reid finished.

**Later **

Emily was leaning in the passenger side of the Range Rover reaching for her kit bag when she felt hands on her hips and a body press up against her. She smiled because she knew just who it was.

"Morgan's gone back inside?" They had taken a break from their discussion of the video images and all the implications they presented to come out to the garage where Emily let Morgan admire the Range Rover close up. He had just left.

"Uh huh."

Finally getting her hand on the kit bag where it was jammed behind the seat, Emily felt the body behind her push even closer. When she was shoved to the side, right up against the SUV and her feet kicked roughly apart, she let the bag fall from her grasp.

"I told you we would continue this," JJ said behind her as her hands roamed up and down Emily's thighs. Emily bit her lip as an intense feeling of anticipation and desire flooded into her. "You want my hands on you, don't you?" JJ's words and her hand smoothing aside the hair from her neck intensified the feelings in Emily even more.

"Oh, yes," Emily breathed out as JJ began kissing and nibbling her neck. "I want you so bad, JJ. Don't hold anything back." One of JJ's hands was pulling her shirt from her pants and the other was kneading one of her buttocks. When JJ pushed her body even harder against her and began grinding her pelvis against her, Emily felt her head drop back against JJ's shoulder. "God, JJ."

"You being away from me made me want you more," JJ said against Emily's neck as her hand pulled her shirt completely loose from her pants. "Made me desire you more," JJ's hands moved under the shirt at her front and sides. Emily sighed with expectation as JJ's nails tickled her tender sides and one hand moved over her belly as the other moved in a sensual caress over the small of her back. "Made me need you more."

"JJ, please. The way I…" Emily felt JJ's hand begin to unbuckle her belt.

"The way you what?" JJ pulled the end of Emily's belt from the buckle and the two ends separated. JJ then worked at the button and zipper. "What about the way I…" she didn't continue speaking just pressed her mouth against Emily's neck in a hungry kiss as one strong, determined hand moved down the front of Emily' pants at the same time as the other moved down the back.

For a moment Emily forgot there was any sort of thing as conversation. Not that the demanding words in her ear were actually_ conversation_. The hand at the back of her pants pressed down in between to her sensitive parts and the hand in front covered her pubic mound with a possessive open palm.

"The way I feel," JJ completed as she began to grasp and knead Emily from both sides "The way I _felt_," a sharp shove with her hips let Emily know JJ was holding a bit of a grudge.

"This isn't a good time to…" Emily began to say but could not continue. JJ's hand had found her clit and with her thumb and forefinger she squeezed firmly. She felt only the intense pleasure coursing through her as her cheek pressed against the cool side of the Range Rover. "JJ, I…" she tried to speak again the words being cut off in a gasp of incoherence as JJ began rubbing her thumb and forefinger together with her clit trapped between.

As if her legs could get any weaker under the storm of sensation JJ was giving her, she felt JJ's other hand, the one at her back, move down further and into her wetness. "I want you to feel," JJ said as her hand moved and two fingers slid easily inside Emily and her thumb shifted back, "I want you to know," she pressed firmly with her thumb, "that right now you are mine."

"Oh my god, JJ!" Emily could barely manage to squeak out as she felt herself possessed so fully by her lover. The feeling of being under JJ's control, owned and filled so completely by her was beyond anything she had ever experienced.

"All of you," JJ's hands moved on and in Emily drawing from her so much physical sensation she thought she might never feel, or even breathe again. JJ's mouth was at her jaw, under her ear biting very lightly. "_I can make you feel so much pleasure_," Emily felt JJ smile as the words she had said to JJ so long ago on that snowy night in Buffalo when they had first made love were repeated back to her.

"So, close. Oh, Jennifer, I'm so close."

Her head back against JJ's shoulder, her legs so weak she thought she would collapse, Emily was so near to her release she could hardly believe it when JJ stepped back. The hands that had been all over her then turned her around and even though those amazing hands were no longer on her, in her, she thought she might come from just the look in JJ's eyes as she moved close.

"I can never get enough of you," JJ said her blue eyes so dark, so deep with passion and longing Emily felt herself gulp. "I hope I never get enough of you - ever."

Emily was pushed back once more against the Range Rover as JJ kissed her. The breath driven from her lungs Emily could only cling to JJ, her arms around JJ's neck, as quickly and easily JJ unbuttoned her shirt. Breaking their kiss only enough for each of them to draw a ragged breath, JJ managed to unhitch Emily's bra. Both of her hands then found Emily's breasts and began to squeeze as she continued to kiss Emily breathless.

When she broke off the kiss and slid her hands down to Emily's hips, Emily heard JJ's voice in her ear as JJ began to sing softly. Hearing the words of the romantic song she had sung to JJ that night at her condo only weeks but a lifetime ago, Emily smiled.

"_You're the rhythm in my song, you're the switch that turns me on, the only place where I belong or want to be…" _

Letting her body slip downward, JJ stopped singing long enough to take one of Emily's nipples and begin to suck urgently. Emily could only sigh, one hand in JJ's hair the other bracing herself against the door jamb of the SUV.

"_You're the half that makes me whole, the only one that sees my soul…"_

JJ switched sides affording Emily's other nipple the same pleasure. As she did, her hands moved around Emily's hips and began forcing her pants down. When Emily was almost fully exposed, JJ dropped to her knees.

"…_Baby it's so real but still I can't believe… every little thing you do to me."_

The last words were set off by kisses to Emily's lower belly and then her inner thighs as JJ worked to free Emily's pants completely from one foot. Once her boot was pulled off and her leg free from her pants, Emily moved her sock foot to the running board of the Range Rover anticipating what was coming next.

Before she moved in, JJ looked up at Emily with those dark, impossibly passionate eyes. "I want you to feel, I want you to know everything I feel for you," she whispered just before her mouth made contact with Emily's most tender spot.

Emily's head fell back as she moaned from her chest. The hand not grasping JJ's hair found the SUV's grab bar and held on tight.

It did not take long, she was so aroused. As JJ's mouth and tongue sucked and licked at her with tenderness one moment and determination the next, Emily felt herself begin to nearly leave her body so intense was the pleasure. Her shoulders thumped back against the side of the SUV as her fist closed tightly in JJ's hair.

"God, JJ!" the words came out of her on a harsh exhale as she climaxed. "The way I… the way you make me feel!"

Slowly JJ eased off. Her hands still flowing over Emily's pelvis, firm thighs and behind, she softly kissed her; tenderly all over her mound, then the insides of her hips and on her lower belly. Standing up, she felt Emily almost fall against her she was so spent.

"Here, let me help you sit, Em," she said sweetly and with just a little irony. Guiding Emily back onto the seat of the Range Rover, she slipped her pants back over her sock foot and pulled them up over her hips. When Emily was settled in the seat, she moved in with her getting half in, half on her lap.

They both sighed deeply. JJ trailed a finger over Emily's lower lip moved close to kiss her. Emily felt her heart slow as the tender kiss relaxed her. "Do you like that?" JJ pulled back and looked at her mischievously. Emily was unsure at first until she watched JJ sensuously run her tongue over her own lip then along each of the first two fingers of her right hand.

"Ah, yeah," Emily tasted her own lip, "I do." Emily closed her eyes and held JJ close, her lover's cheek on her chest. She felt and heard JJ giggle.

"I'm just lost in _wow_ right now," Emily said against the top of JJ's head and felt her laugh again. "Remind me again, was there something else going on in the world; something else besides you?"

JJ looked up at Emily her eyes softly blue and gentle again. "Nope, not a damn thing, except how much I love you." She kissed Emily again, resettled against her chest. "Don't leave me again, Em," JJ said softly.

Emily tightened her hold on JJ. "I won't. I'm sorry. I never knew how much I loved you until I was away from you. I didn't even know I could feel that way," when she said this she felt a tear drop from her eye and slide down her cheek.

"To hear you say you love me, Em, I…" JJ couldn't finish just let the words trail off. She could feel Emily's chest tightening knew she was allowing herself to truly feel. "I won't ever let you go, ever!"

JJ held Emily as she cried softly, almost soundlessly.

**Later **

The house was quiet and very dark when Guerin came slowly awake. Not fully conscious, she let her mind range around touching all the people close by. She found Reid first, found him asleep in one of the downstairs bedrooms. Smiling to herself, she thought of his eager desire. Not far from him, in the bedroom across the hall she was aware of Morgan though she could not touch him.

On the lowest level of the house she felt Carmo dozing her strong presence muted. Nearby was someone else, someone she didn't know. The strange woman's mind was just a blur almost like the buzz of electronics. Tergensen was there as well her dreaming mind confused by images of Mich as if she could not decide between what she knew to be true and what she wanted to be true. Guerin moved on quickly and the next mind she touched surprised her. Actually it was two minds, but so close in mutual passion they might as well be one.

Guerin exhaled from deep in her chest as she let her own consciousness mix with the two women. Like a voyeur, yet so much more connected, she could feel their lovemaking on such a deep level that it aroused her quickly and intensely. They were close, just down the upstairs hall in the bedroom Tergensen usually occupied. _When she's not here in my bed_, Guerin's mind completed and she felt the young blonde woman's anticipation through Emily as Emily moved lower, still lower to find her and have her.

Arching her back, Guerin felt Tergensen stir as the lust moving through her found Tergensen's sleeping mind. Of all the women in her life the red head was always the most attuned to her needs; always the most willing to give herself over to darker desires.

Stretching out an arm, Guerin found a warm, sleeping form beside her in the bed. She had not been aware of Mani until now. Turning on her side, she moved closer to the other woman reaching out to touch hips and back with her hands, and neck with her mouth.

"Guerin," Mani came awake and caught hold of one of the hands that was exploring her. Instantly she could feel through Guerin what was rousing her: Emily and JJ locked in intense passion so oblivious to everything except themselves. "Guerin, stop," at the periphery of her mind she felt Tergensen approaching her excited mind intent on Guerin.

By the time she had untangled herself from Guerin and left the bed, Tergensen was at the door. Even in the murky darkness she saw the younger woman's lip curl in scorn. "Don't worry, Mani," Tergensen moved past her. "I'll take care of this."

Mani closed the door softly behind her and leaned against it with a sigh. She thought about the sedative she kept in the bedside table of her room down the hall and how she often found the pills the only way to shut out Guerin's unwanted thoughts_. Maybe someday I'll have my own mind and my own life back,_ she thought as she moved away toward her own room.

Guerin swung her legs over the side of the bed as Tergensen came toward her. When the other woman was close enough, Guerin grabbed her waist and pulled her to her. Lifting her T-shirt, she pressed her face against Tergensen's warm abdomen just above her loose sweat pants. Bracing with a hand at her back, Guerin bit lightly at Tergensen's belly as she moved her other hand down.

When her pants pulled away from her body Guerin laughed. "Girl, I can smell you," she shoved her hand between Tergensen's legs."And I know you are…" Guerin broke off as her fingers found what she expected. "…always so fucking wet for me," she completed.

Sliding her two fingers through the other woman's slick folds, Guerin neither touched her eager clit nor penetrated her. Feeling Tergensen get quickly and easily frustrated, she laughed. "You can never wait, can you? You always want."

"Just do it, bitch," with one hand Tergensen started to push her own pants down as her other hand gripped Guerin's short hair and tried to shove her head lower. Guerin let her take control, let herself be handled roughly. When Tergensen's pants were down just far enough, Guerin extended her tongue and just dabbed her firm clit. With a grunt and pull on the back of her head that pushed Guerin's face full against her, Tergensen let her know the soft touch was not going to do.

"Just," Tergensen drew in a labored breath, "fuck," she let it out sharply as Guerin began to suck hard at her teasing with just a touch of her teeth, "me."

Guerin laughed against her. "Who's the bitch now?" She rose up from the bed her left arm going around Tergensen she pressed their bodies hard together. With her right hand she moved to thrust into her as her mind slammed against the other woman. Growling in her chest, Guerin felt for, and enveloped, Tergensen's most base desire; that darkness so much a part of her and so many times unwanted by her.

Her mind overwhelmed by lust, Tergensen still resisted. She pushed off Guerin moving a step back and almost breaking the grip holding her, but Guerin was much stronger and didn't completely let her go. Getting a foot behind her ankle, she drove Tergensen down to the floor attempting to pin the other woman as she wriggled under her.

"Oh, you like that!" Guerin could feel the lust in Tergensen mingle with an impossibly dark delight. Tergensen wrapped her legs around Guerin's hips, crossed her ankles as she held her tight. Again Guerin let her take some control feeling her own heat increase as she grappled with Tergensen's grasping hands. Pressing her chest down on the other woman she felt Tergensen panting for breath her heart pounding. There was no way to get a hand between their two bodies they were so close, so Guerin began rocking her hips against the body below her as she let her mind fill with thoughts of pleasuring Tergensen.

The younger woman began to relax as she drew slower breaths. Guerin insinuated a hand between them and pushed down and into her pants. Tergensen sighed heavily unresisting now as Guerin's right hand moved down and then into her. Tangling her hands in Guerin's shorts, she pulled the woman on top of her back and forth over her. "Please, Guerin, don't stop," she panted as she rode the fingers Guerin had moving in and out of her.

Guerin's other hand grabbed a handful of red hair and pushed her head back so their mouths could meet in a greedy kiss. Tergensen did not have long as she gave in to Guerin's probing tongue, before she began to come. Breaking the kiss, her head going back against the floor, her body pushed up into the woman on top of her as Guerin's hand gave a last hard thrust into her and held tight against her orgasm.

"That's my girl, "Guerin said against her lover's throat. "That's my good, girl." She could feel Tergensen melt just a little bit more at the words. Slipping her fingers from the tight embrace that held her, Guerin began to softly circle Tergensen's clit. She lifted herself on her elbow to watch as the woman below her closed her eyes sighing as pleasure took her again. More slowly, more tenderly, Guerin kissed her, never stopping the movement of her fingers as she massaged the hard nub through the thick layer of silkiness.

Again it did not take long before Tergensen was gasping against Guerin's mouth as she peaked for a second time. This time she lay back after, still and depleted. Guerin let her breathe moving to kneel between her legs. Caressing Tergensen's belly and sides with her hands Guerin leaned down and kissed her again. "You felt them?" Tergensen asked. Running a hand through Guerin's hair, she pushed the other woman's face back far enough so their eyes could meet in the dim light.

Guerin didn't answer just kissed Tergensen along her jaw and collarbones as her own need began to rise quickly to the surface. Tergensen felt it too biting her lip as Guerin wordlessly pulled her up to a sitting position. When Guerin stood, Tergensen moved to get up as well but Guerin stopped her.

"No, girl, just to your knees," Guerin began pulling off her shorts.

Eagerly Tergensen pushed Guerin's hands aside pulling the shorts down far enough for her that Guerin could step out of them. Guerin moved half a step forward and took a fist full of red hair as she pulled Tergensen to her.

"That's my good girl," Guerin whispered as Tergensen's mouth found her aching clit.

**Later**

Guerin was asleep with her arm and leg loosely over Tergensen when she felt Carmo's excited presence come into the bedroom. Rolling over onto her back, she looked up at the dark haired woman standing at the edge of her bed holding a glowing tablet computer. Guerin's eyes went to the open door where she could faintly see a well built blonde woman with glasses. The other woman seemed as excited at Carmo.

"What?"

Carmo just handed over the tablet.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Guerin reached behind her and slapped the half asleep Tergensen. "There's someone trying to get in the house!"

On the screen she held in her hands was a real time feed from the elaborate security system. A green blob was moving slowly through the shrubs under the music room windows. Reaching out with her mind Guerin tried to find the intruder. Concentrating harder to overcome the fuzziness still clinging to her consciousness, Guerin tried to put the last remnant of disorientation and vagueness leftover from her coma behind her.

Once she had focused, Guerin felt stronger, her clarity almost overwhelming. Tergensen was now sitting up staring at her surprised. Letting her mind range around, Guerin felt no one else, just the one intruder

"Downstairs; monitor," she ordered Carmo as she got out of bed naked. In the dresser just a few steps away Guerin found cargo shorts and a T-shirt. "Get dressed, Dev," she ordered the woman who was just now pushing aside the sheets. Pulling the T-shirt over her head, Guerin approached the blonde woman still standing hesitantly just outside the door.

"Get Prentiss," she gestured down the hall. "First door on the right; no lights and no noise," turning back into the room she went to the bedside table and took her Browning out of the top drawer. She checked the magazine, slapped it back in, and shoved the .9mm in the back of her shorts.

"Where's my gun?" Tergensen was going through the drawers of the night stand on the other side of the bed.

"Your weapon! You're not a fucking gangsta, Devin, and it's probably in your room."

When Tergensen left the room Guerin reached out again with her mind this time trying to touch Reid. He was now almost as familiar to her as Tergensen or Grayson yet not on a level with Robichaud. As she thought this, she felt a jab of pain in her heart. Mich was gone; her presence beyond reach forever. These thoughts, and the pain they caused, were enough to wake Reid. Pushing the loss aside she put a clear image in her mind of Morgan and Reid, dressed and armed, meeting her in the great room near the bar.

"Emily…" Garcia spoke softly but urgently as she approached the bed. She could see her two friends lying close together covered by a single blanket. "Emily, get…"

"…the fuck up," Tergensen finished as she barged into the room behind Garcia. Going to the night stand she found her Smith and Wesson .40 and a smaller .380 automatic.

"What the…" JJ started to say as she sat up.

"There's an intruder. Get dressed and downstairs ASAP," turning to Garcia, Tergensen handed her the .380. Garcia took it but held it like it was some kind of deadly bug. "The last room on this floor is Mani's. Go stay with her until you get the all clear."

With that Tergensen was gone. Emily was already on her feet finding clothes for both herself and JJ. "Go Garcia. Shoot anyone that's not me, JJ, Reid or Morgan."

Downstairs Emily and JJ found Guerin and Tergensen kneeling by the breakfast bar looking at a faintly glowing screen. Reid was near the bar on the kitchen side, Morgan on the other side near the doorway that led into the back of the house.

Emily looked over Tergensen's shoulder at the small screen. The green glowing figure representing the intruder now seemed to be on the inside wall of the big music room.

"Alarms?" Emily asked wondering why the house was still silent.

"Disabled," Tergensen replied. Beside Tergensen Guerin seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Stay here," she cast a quick look at JJ and Emily, "on either side of the door. "Morgan," she gestured through the door, "stay out of sight to the right. Watch the long corridor."

"Let's go, Dev," Guerin put aside the tablet. "We're going to get behind her."

"Her?" Tergensen was on her feet her eyes big as she bit her lip. "Sweet!"

Guerin pushed Tergensen ahead of her, whispered in her ear, "Yeah, totally sweet."

Moving quickly and quietly the two went out into the main hall and into the lab room. Proceeding all the way to the back, Guerin opened a narrow door and they passed into the dark store room. On the left they took up positions on either side of a hidden door that opened into the long hall to the music room.

Tergensen waited letting her consciousness back Guerin's as the other woman let her mind roam outward feeling for the intruder. There was the tiniest creaking as the door to the music room opened. Silently the intruder moved up the hall, Guerin following with her mind. Touching Tergensen lightly on the elbow, Guerin opened the hidden door.

Once in the hall they could see a figure about 15 feet ahead moving slowly in a half crouch. With a quick nod of her head, Guerin motioned Tergensen to stay back as she moved swiftly ahead her bare feet making no sound in the dim hall. She approached from the back and left and once close enough, pressed the muzzle of her handgun against the intruder's head just below the left ear.

"Be still."

The intruder froze, hands going up and out. In her right hand was a small caliber pistol with a long silencer. Holding the Browning in her left hand, Guerin reached out to take the weapon. Before her hand could close on it, the intruder made a quick move ducking her left shoulder down and twisting back. Guerin was elbowed back off balance her finger closing on the trigger of her pistol.

The stray shot passed just close enough to the intruder to nick her chin. Feeling a rush of air, Guerin saw Tergensen launch herself in a full-on tackle. The force of the move brought all three of them down in a heap in the floor. The silenced weapon skittered down the hall ahead of them. Grunting, Tergensen wrestled the intruder grabbing at her dark clothing and military style webbing.

"I got you, I got you," Tergensen pushed down on the smaller woman with her knees and shoulder. Taking a handful of dark hair, she pressed the intruder's cheek into the floor.

"Yeah, you got her, Dev," Guerin laughed noticing Tergensen's Smith and Wesson was still secured at her side. As Guerin watched, Tergensen leaned over the disarmed woman and breathed against her ear not saying anything. Guerin laughed again feeling the dark lust rising in Tergensen once more. "All that wrestling always did turn you on, didn't it Dev?" Guerin said softly but loud enough for the captive to hear.

"You know what I like," tracing her other hand down the pinned woman's arm, Tergensen took her hand, began to pull it back. "I like to fight," she turned her head and looked at Guerin, "and I like to be on top."

"Yeah, right Dev," Guerin was remembering other times with the red headed woman starting with that day in the backyard and the football; the day that was captured in a whimsical photograph hanging on the wall of Guerin's office just down the hall. What the viewer couldn't know was that just after the picture was taken, Guerin had discovered Tergensen's hidden nature; on the granite counter in the kitchen.

"Oh, she's liking this," Tergensen's mouth was next to the captive's ear and Guerin could see the woman's dark eyes looking back at Tergensen who was holding her down. There was not an ounce of fear - only something else.

"Get her up," Guerin ordered. She could hear the FBI agents coming down the hall. Tergensen pulled the captive to her feet one wrist held behind her back. Guerin scooped up the dropped pistol as they met the others in the hall. Tergensen kept moving forward until out in the great room next to the bar. She released the woman's arm and pushed her against the bar. A quick frisk revealed a combat knife on her hip and a small .9mm in an ankle holster.

Tergensen placed the weapons on the bar stepping back to make room for Guerin. The captive sneered at Tergensen's show of submission to Guerin. "She's got your number, Devin," Guerin said not looking at the other woman. Her eyes were on the woman wearing the black tactical gear noting with a quick up and down that they stood almost exactly the same height. The captive had followed her eyes, sneered again her eyes dark and knowing as she watched Guerin's every move.

"What's going on?" JJ leaned against Emily her voice low. When Emily turned to look at her JJ could see something different in her lover's brown eyes, something she had only seen in private; something she had seen several times tonight. When JJ went to step forward, Emily held out a restraining hand.

"She's not going to hurt her. It's a game."

Guerin grabbed the captive by the front of her vest and pulled her forward until they were nose to nose. Blood had tricked from the wound on her chin down her neck and under the collar of her shirt. Like a cat, Guerin sniffed at it, bared her teeth. "You come into my house," she was staring directly into the other woman's eyes but there seemed to be no reaction to the words. "What are you after?" The dark brown eyes remained unreachable, aloof and something else. Guerin grinned when she felt it, but Tergensen literally bounced.

"She wants you to…"

"Shut up, Dev," Guerin cut her off. "We need to do this interrogation in private," Guerin pulled the woman to her again, holding her close for a moment, then began shoving her toward the entrance to the library across the room. Tergensen followed eagerly behind.

When Emily made to follow JJ grabbed her arm. "You are not taking part in that!" her eyes flashed with anger.

Emily put her hand over JJ's, "It's not exactly what you think." Her eyes went from JJ to Reid.

"She's right, JJ," when Reid spoke his Adam's apple bobbed. "She's not resisting. In fact," he looked from JJ to Morgan, "it's quite the opposite."

"I'm not going to ask you how you know that," Morgan took a step back looking toward the library as a lamp came on in the room.

Emily crossed the great room feeling JJ behind her for several steps, felt her stop. "I won't let it go too far, JJ," she said over her shoulder"

Tergensen gave a little snort when Emily slipped in the door as she was sliding it shut. "Embracing your dark side, Prentiss?"

"Been there, done that," Emily stared Tergensen down.

Guerin had pushed the captive up on the heavy refectory table and was slowly removing her gear starting with her webbing. Emily circled behind Guerin almost unnerved by the dark eyes as they followed her. She would have called the young woman passive except for those eyes; they burned into Emily with a sort of wildness that was closer to being shrewd then fearful. It was so close even to lust she was not surprised by the vibration of barely restrained sexuality she felt coming from Tergensen.

"She's been drugged, hasn't she?" Emily stated watching as Guerin removed the captive's Kevlar vest. Underneath was a simple black T-shirt. Guerin hooked a finger under the neckline of the shirt, withdrew a round disc on a chain. With a snap she pulled it off. Tossing it to Tergensen she leaned on the table, one hand on either side of the young woman as she stared directly into her eyes.

"Ramirez, C.R. Blood type A Positive," Tergensen read.

"She has," Guerin finally answered Emily. "I'm not sure what. By the way she's reacting to me," Guerin touched the tip of her finger against the blood on the captive's chin, licked it off slowly with her tongue, "it's possibly 'E'." She grinned at the reaction from the other woman watching as Ramirez gave a huff of exhaled breath, worked her jaw back and forth.

Guerin then began reaching into each of the woman's pockets removing the contents and turning them out until only fluff remained. There was very little to make note of: a small brass key on a ring, two breath mints, a crumpled piece of paper, a tiny, somewhat bent, SD card.

After each pocket was empty Guerin leaned in close again to the woman rubbing her chin along her jaw line like a cat until her mouth was next to her ear. "Why did you come to my house? Who sent you? Did you come for me?"

Ramirez made no reply just turned her head until her mouth was brushing Guerin's. Emily caught her breath at the wave of intense sexual energy radiated from the two women. Tergensen gave a little squeak and stepped forward her hand going to Guerin's arm.

"She's mine, Dev," Guerin shook off the offending hand. "All mine." Guerin's hands went to the woman's slim hips holding her as they kissed.

Emily felt frozen to the spot by the energy that surrounded and invaded her. For a moment she thought she might give in to it, be rendered anxious and nearly drooling like Tergensen, but a part of her logical mind remained, began to pull her out of the dark well.

Opening her mouth to voice a protest, she was cut off as the door was thrown aside and Mani Grayson strode into the room.

"Guerin!" she barked her voice sharp with authority.

Guerin turned her head to look at Grayson though Ramirez tried to pull her back. Grayson walked up to the table and gazed into the eyes of the dark haired young woman who was clawing at Guerin's shirt.

"She's been drugged!"

"So?" this was from Tergensen.

"Did it never occur to you two teenage horn dogs that maybe she was drugged for a reason?"

At that moment, there was a disturbance at the door. There were several voices raised in protest then JJ walked in her stride determined.

"And the reason is distraction!" she held up the computer tablet. At the very edge of the display for the property, a group of small green dots could be seen fanning out.

"Damn," Guerin pushed the captive back onto the table.

The Way I – SoShy

Next, Chapter 5: Deliver Me


	5. Deliver Me

A/N: This chapter is very heavy on plot so close attention is required. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and PMed me. You comments are probably the only thing that helps me get through the dark moments of doubt when I wonder why I bother to put this out there. I'm just a lonely writer sitting in my kitchen staring out into my sunny, green backyard thinking I should be out there soaking up the sun and listening to the Robins singing for rain and not in here doing this. Special thanks to bdd4evr1 for helping me work out a few issues the beginning of this chapter caused with the continuity. Alice …

**Chapter 5: Deliver Me**

**15 minutes later**

The five new intruders were in the process of making their way over the tall stone wall as Guerin looked at the tablet computer. At that moment, Tergensen came into the garage followed by Morgan and JJ. Tergensen and Morgan both heaved heavy canvas bags loaded with weapons and ammunition. Tergensen tossed hers into the back of a huge Ford F450 pickup truck and slammed the tailgate shut.

"We got the last of what we need from the armoury," Tergensen stated. "And she got more food," a quick nod indicated JJ who was loading the Escalade with several bags placing them next to the bag Morgan has already tossed in.

"Good, you're driving," Guerin tossed her the keys before pushing the captive into the passenger side. As Tergensen passed the handcuffed woman she ran a quick hand through her dark hair.

"Later, girl."

The young woman's eyes followed Tergensen as she went to the driver's side door.

"Has Carmo found the cat yet?"

"Yes, Guerin, we have her," Mani Grayson entered the garage carrying a small animal cage followed closely by Carmo carrying the cat. The tall woman buckled a pretty blue harness decorated with red and yellow fish around the cat before pushing the feline gently into the carrier. "I'm taking my car," hefting the cat carrier, Grayson crossed to the far side of the garage.

Checking the tablet computer, Guerin noted the position of the intruders near the wall, and smiled. "Perfect," she said to herself and touched a control. A series of pops could be heard from various points around the house.

"What was that?" Emily asked looking over Guerin's shoulder at the display.

"Counter measures – like little landmines. That will slow them down." A touch of another control and the three bay doors of the big garage began to open.

"You think of everything don't you?" Emily nodded to the big Ford loaded with enough emergency supplies and gear for an army platoon. "Just like your place in Florida."

"Get in your vehicle and let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?"

Guerin looked past Emily to where JJ sat in the passenger side of the Range Rover then over to where Reid, Morgan and Garcia were getting into the Escalade. "Just follow me – if you are coming with me." She gave Emily a long look before turning to the Ford and getting in the passenger side.

Grayson's Chevy Malibu was first through the gate with the Ford, Escalade and Range Rover following. As they turned onto the street, Guerin touched another control on the tablet computer and tossed the device in the backseat. This time the flashes lit up the sky.

**Later**

Three propane lanterns arranged on camp tables lit up the area in the center of the parked vehicles. They failed to give much warmth to the interior of the old warehouse – a supposed safe place – where Guerin had led the little caravan.

"Why do you think they're after you?"

JJ stopped next to Guerin's shoulder and took the enamel mug of coffee as it was passed to her. For a long moment the other woman didn't look at her just poured herself coffee emptying the carafe. "They're probably tired of me," Guerin stated simply as she set about preparing a fresh pot. When the coffee maker was filled with water and the grounds measured out, she lit the camp stove's burner and turned it up high. As the flames tickled the stainless steel bottom of the Coleman appliance, Guerin finally looked at JJ. "I've been a thorn in their side for a long time. I've probably outlived my usefulness."

At that moment, Grayson approached her stride purposeful. "I've told Carmo I'm taking Hermione with me." When Guerin just stared at her she elaborated: "I'm not staying with you. I'm going to the hospital. I'm sure they need me there and I need to get away from you. I've been trying to for while…"

"Mani, this isn't the time."

"When will it ever be the time?" Grayson responded. She started to walk by Guerin, paused. "Mich is gone now and I need to be away more than you need me around," she paused again, looked at Guerin squarely. "Mich would never have allowed that," she flicked a quick glance at the captive where she sat on the running board of the truck.

When Guerin bristled, she continued, "You can't reach her mind can you?" Guerin looked away, took a gulp of coffee. "What do you feel from her?"

"Do you need me to tell you?" Guerin answered her voice tight.

"I don't need you to tell me, I need you to admit it to yourself." With that Grayson walked away. After a moment the sound of a rusty door sliding open could be heard. Then a car started up and the headlights traced a path through the door and off into the night.

With a sigh, Guerin drained her coffee mug and started across the broad expanse of floor to close the open door.

"Why don't you leave her alone?" It wasn't a question so much as an order. Emily's raised voice came from next to the Ford truck. Tergensen was crouching in front of the captive Ramirez where she was chained to the running board. It was obvious from the way the red head rocked back on her heels that she had been doing something nefarious.

"She doesn't mind," slowly Tergensen reached out a hand and smoothed a loose strand of hair behind the woman's ear. As she pulled her hand back she ran her knuckles along the captive's cheek in a soft caress. When Tergensen's hand began moving down her throat to her chest, Emily took another step forward.

"That doesn't make it right," Emily snapped.

Tergensen shot to her feet. "There's unfinished business between us, Prentiss," she menaced. "You still have no idea how close you came to being torn to pieces by Carmo," her eyes flicked to the periphery of the circle of light cast by the lanterns to where the tall woman stood watching. "You'd be dead right now if it wasn't for Mich," at that Tergensen's eyes seemed to cloud and her anger lost some steam.

"Devin, you're hurting," JJ moved between Emily and Tergensen and reached out to touch the red head's arm but Tergensen shook her off.

"It's not as simple as that," Tergensen glared at JJ.

Guerin chose that moment to rejoin the group. She looked from Tergensen's flushed face to JJ then Emily. "What fun am I missing?" she asked her voice sarcastic.

"You need to keep your _sidekick_ on a leash, Guerin," Emily's tone was scathing.

Tergensen took a step toward Emily but JJ blocked her with a hand on the center of her chest. Guerin was watching Tergensen closely saw how the touch caused her anger to shift down into the aroused state she got in before a fight. She stood still, staring down JJ.

"We should let them fight it out," Guerin's eyes were on Emily, "that would be totally hot."

For a long moment the four women stood in silent stand-off. The tension was broken by Reid's approach.

"What did she mean, Doctor Grayson, when she said you couldn't reach her mind?" he was looking directly at Guerin ignoring the others.

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Guerin took her eyes off Emily. Before she replied, she caught Tergensen's belt at the back of her pants and pulled the other woman back a step. Tergensen gave a huff, batted Guerin's hand aside, and went towards the table with the coffee maker.

"I can't," Guerin put her hands on her hips. "When I try, all I get is…" she trailed off taking a deep breath. "Why don't you tell him?" Guerin looked at Emily.

"You're the interrogator, that's your territory," Emily wasn't giving an inch.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Morgan appeared at Reid's side with Garcia behind him. "We need a plan or we go our own ways," his eyes went to the door Grayson had recently driven through.

No one said anything for a drawn out minute. Guerin was watching Tergensen as she turned off the stove and poured herself coffee. "We'll try again," Guerin's eyes went to the captive, "but I don't want any interference. And someone needs to keep Carmo distracted; she can't handle emotions like this."

"I'll do that," Garcia spoke up. "What was that I heard about an SD card?"

Emily reached into her pocket and took out the few things they had taken from the captive separating out the little data storage device. "It's a bit damaged," she handed it to Garcia.

"All the more fun," Garcia left to gather her laptop and Carmo.

With a last look at Emily, Guerin gestured at Tergensen to join her at the truck.

"We get to play now?" Tergensen watched as Guerin uncuffed the woman captive then followed as Guerin took her around to the back of the truck out of sight of the others. Reaching the open tailgate, Guerin lifted the smaller woman onto the truck. Standing between her knees, Guerin leaned in close brushing her mouth against the other woman's ear.

"Do you talk at all?"

"I want you," the voice was low and husky and Guerin couldn't help but be amused and aroused again as the woman's hands started at her waist and began to explore her back.

"Who sent you?"

"Don't know; The Man in the Car." The hands were clutching at her neck now.

Guerin shot a quick look at Tergensen surprised to have gotten an actual answer. When she looked back at the captive and their eyes met, she began to press around the fringes of her mind trying to find a way in past the overt sexuality. When there seemed no way past that barrier, Guerin touched it like a sensual caress and concentrated on the phrase 'The Man in the Car'.

It was as if the touch was directly, physically on her, the reaction was so immediate. The captive woman drew in a deep breath her eyes blinking slowly in pleasure. Guerin continued to push further into her mind at the same time deepening the tender, virtual caress.

"That's it G," Tergensen shifted from foot to foot. Guerin didn't bother to ask her to clarify what she meant. Images like blurry snapshots floated around the woman's mind like so many butterflies. Keeping her concentration on 'man' and 'car', Guerin began grabbing at them.

As she sorted the memories, she was not surprised to feel Tergensen close beside her one hand on the captive and the other on her own shoulder. With effort, she tried to block out the intense emotions of the woman who had so often been a source of pleasure and release for her.

Guerin felt one memory from the captive just at the edge of her awareness, felt her focus on it sharpen as Tergensen's hand gripped her shirt at the collar and the red head moved in to kiss her neck slowly and sensuously. After spending time on Guerin, Tergensen then moved her attention to the captive and began kissing the other woman's throat and chin. _That's my girl_, Guerin couldn't help but think, her own arousal going up a notch.

The memory slipped into place: there was a man in a car – a flashy new Cadillac – as seen from a distance. Guerin tried to analyze it. Tergensen had moved halfway between them now and was kissing the woman all over her neck as her hand moved to find a breast under the black T-shirt the woman was wearing.

Guerin couldn't see his face he was still a blur. Tergensen was kissing the woman on her mouth now their tongues meeting eager and greedy and Guerin could feel everything they were feeling physically and mentally. The image of the man in the car was lost in a haze of desire and, almost without her knowledge, Guerin felt her own hands at Tergensen's waist caressing her tender sides. Pressing closer, her hand moved up Tergensen's arm to her hair as Guerin began kissing, and lightly biting, the back of the red head's neck.

Guerin felt Tergensen purr with pleasure and for a long moment she was lost to it herself as the hand she had been caressing Tergensen with found the other woman and grabbed a handful of her dark hair. The physical contact brought the memory back into focus and Guerin took a moment to marvel at this as she saw the man in the car hand over a wad of cash in a bulging envelope, and a small brass key.

"The rest of it and your next contact will be in the locker." The car then pulled away leaving Ramirez / Guerin standing alone in the parking lot of a strip mall.

Guerin stepped back letting go with both her mind and her hands. Tergensen immediately filled the gap she had left and, as Guerin watched, Tergensen pushed Ramirez farther back into the bed of the truck and moved on top of her. Detached, Guerin watched them kiss and grope at each other their desire unfocussed and raw.

For a long time she considered leaving them to it and walking away. When that thought faded, she imagined pulling Tergensen off and claiming the captive for herself. Then, it occurred to her, the least she could do was put the handcuffs back on the captive and take Tergensen into the comfortable back seat of the truck. She was actually reaching to do this when she heard the scuff of a boot on concrete behind her. Turning, Guerin spotted Emily at the edge of her vision, felt her scorn as she looked at the three of them for a minute before turning away.

Grabbing Tergensen by her belt and collar, Guerin pulled her off the dark haired woman. "That's enough, Dev. I got what I needed."

When Tergensen was back on her feet, she looked at Guerin confused. "Why? I don't…" she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Never mind," Guerin put the handcuffs back on Ramirez, looping the long chain around a tie down on the bed of the truck, and left her where she sat. "C'mon, let's go."

"Did you get something or just get off?" Emily asked as Guerin and Tergensen rejoined the group. Emily's eyes went from Guerin to the red headed woman behind her who was looking slightly disheveled.

Guerin would have laughed, in fact she started to, but as she approached the others, her gaze went past Emily to the screen of the laptop computer she could see over Garcia's shoulder. Ignoring Emily, Guerin went to the table where Garcia was working and stared at the image of their captive, Ramirez, exiting the door of an exercise club, gym bag in her hand. The day was heavily overcast and there was snow in the air. Ramirez was not looking at the camera, in fact she probably had no idea she was being photographed as the picture was completely candid.

"The Man in the Car?" Tergensen asked at Guerin's shoulder as she tucked her shirt back in her pants.

"Are there any shots of a Cadillac?" Guerin asked Garcia.

Garcia looked over her shoulder at Guerin's intense face. "No, no cars except in the parking lot," she answered. "I could only get two frames off the card. Two shots of her leaving whatever that is – looks like a gym." Garcia brought up the other picture. This one appeared to be taken from a little bit further away.

"Can you enhance the background? Get the name and address of that gym?"

Garcia began hitting keys as everyone crowded around behind her. The signage on the door to the gym, and the business next to it, began to come slowly into focus.

"She was supposed to pick up the rest of her money and contact information in a locker - probably of this place. It's the same strip mall where she met what she calls "The Man in the Car". It was the only thing I could get out of her that was useful."

"Contact information?" Morgan questioned. "And she was a hired hit man?"

"Apparently she was and I don't know what 'contact information' means, just that it might be our only lead," Guerin glanced at Emily as she answered, saw the dark haired woman reach into her pocket and pull out the brass key. "Unless you've got a better idea," she added.

Emily didn't respond; her eyes were on the laptop screen as the name of the gym came into focus.

"That's a small local chain," JJ was the first to speak as she leaned closer to the screen. "I've seen them around the DC area especially Manassas." There was a street number, 14333, at the top of the glass door, below that the hours of operation were listed. "It couldn't be that simple could it?" JJ shook her head, "to list the street as well."

"It might not be there," Garcia pulled the picture to the right to show more of the business on the left of the gym, "but how about this?"

The business next to the gym was called "Stonewall Rd. Nail Salon."

"That's not all that far from here," Reid commented his brain shifting into MapQuest mode.

"Is anyone up for a mani and a pedi after their work out?" Garcia turned to look at the faces behind her with a satisfied smile.

**Later**

JJ sat at the wheel of the Range Rover with Reid in the passenger seat next to her. They were at the end of the short street behind the strip mall out of sight of the back entrance to the gym. Farther down the street in a small lot behind a restaurant, Garcia and Carmo waited in the Ford truck.

The street was quiet and dark; no one, not a car or person on foot around. This area was still without power although they had driven through several small pockets where streetlights shone and traffic lights blinked. To the east, the cloudy sky was just beginning to lighten.

"They got the door open and are going in," Morgan's voice spoke from the Walkie-Talkie JJ held loosely in her hand. "I'm hanging back." JJ could just make out Morgan moving slowly alongside a dumpster. Across the street the Escalade sat empty as Emily, Guerin, Tergensen and their captive were entering the gym.

"Now we wait," JJ glanced at Reid.

When he met her eyes, Reid could feel her anxiety and knew she was nervous for Emily and the unknown situation she was about to get into.

"They'll be alright," Reid tried for his most reassuring tone. JJ didn't answer just nibbled her knuckle.

Morgan held his Glock in a two hand grip the Walkie-Talkie clipped to his belt the volume turned low. Where he crouched on one knee next to the dumpster he could see both the back door and the street. It had been five minutes since Emily and the others went in.

"We're coming out," Emily's voice said as if on cue; Morgan was just considering reaching for his Walkie-Talkie to ask their status. "The locker the key fit was empty."

A moment later the four women appeared at the door. Emily exited first followed by Ramirez then Guerin right behind. Last to leave was Tergensen. Morgan took a quick scan of the road then turned back to the door. His brows furrowed in confusion as he noted a piece of brick splinter from the wall just above Guerin and Ramirez's heads where they walked close together. A second later there was a sharp '_ping_' though there was no sound of a gunshot. He opened his mouth to shout but Guerin beat him to it.

"Sniper! Get down!"

Emily dove to the right behind a parked car, Tergensen jumped back into the open doorway, and Guerin hit the pavement rolling to her left. Ramirez was not so quick. In her drugged state she had no time to react, even if she could. As Morgan watched, she took a round to the center of her chest her head snapping back.

"Damn," Morgan peeked out from behind the dumpster to the street and the two story buildings beyond. Just as he spotted movement on the roof of the building directly across the street, a loud '_ding_' on the corner of the dumpster told him his position was known. To his right Guerin was looking from him to the wounded woman. He knew she would have to expose herself briefly to reach Ramirez who was still moving, apparently alive. He nodded then made eye contact with Emily. "Prentiss, roof of the building right across the street. On three...one, two, three."

Staying low he began firing at where he had seen the sniper, the bark of Emily's Glock joining his. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Guerin pulling Ramirez to safety. Tergensen ducked out of the door grabbing the wounded woman's other arm and together they got her into the shelter of the dumpster.

Morgan made a slashing gesture with his hand across his throat and Emily stopped firing. As the last of the shots faded he could hear JJ's voice speaking urgently from the Walkie-Talkie at his belt.

"Ramirez was hit," Emily answered JJ. "There was a sniper on the roof across the street. Stay put."

Guerin pressed the heel of her hand to the wound on Ramirez's chest watching as the bleeding woman drew ragged, slow breaths. When her eyes came open they locked on Guerin's. Instantly Guerin felt the other woman's urgency as so many thoughts crowded her mind. There was pain laced with sorrow and regret as she knew she would not survive. Remarkably, as her body began to bleed out, her mind began to clear even more.

Guerin saw again the Man in the Car: he was tall and darkly handsome and almost familiar. A dusty landscape and people in uniform swirled through her mind and Guerin knew she was looking at Afghanistan as Ramirez had seen it: the confusion, the IED explosion and the blood. It was all so similar to what Guerin had experienced for herself. After that there were hospitals: Kandahar, Germany, then back in the US. Then there was a woman, young and smiling, and Guerin could not mistake their connection.

Behind that there was something else. A brightly lit room, like an operating suite or a lab room, with a cold, steel table. Guerin gasped at the fear and anxiety the room brought. There were images of the lights beating into her eyes as she struggled on the table trying to resist. "This won't hurt," a man's voice said as he injected something into the IV line that went into her arm.

"Here," Ramirez said weakly her hand going to the front of her pants.

"What?" Tergensen looked at Guerin confused. Guerin could tell she had felt the same feelings she had from Ramirez.

Ramirez was clutching at the zipper of her pants trying to speak. Staring at her Guerin saw through the haze of her dying mind the tiny pocket she had sewn into the front of her pants just at the bottom of the zipper. Slipping her hand under Ramirez's Guerin felt a tiny, hard square in the fabric.

Taking a small knife from her pocket she cut away the stitches, held up another SD card. "I beat them," Ramirez let out a last breath, almost smiled. "Deliver me…" she whispered her voice fading.

After a moment, Guerin felt her say the name '_Nancy_' in her mind as she died.

Guerin dropped the SD card into Tergensen's open palm her eyes never leaving the dead woman in front of her. Tergensen could feel the rage building in Guerin like a tidal wave. "They used her; she was expendable," Guerin was working hard to control her breathing. She held out her left hand in front of her face; the hand that was covered in blood.

"Hey, G," Tergensen grabbed at the collar of Guerin's jacket, "look at me!"

Slowly Guerin turned towards her. When their eyes met, Tergensen had to look away the pain and despair was so strong. A moment later Guerin was on her feet walking back toward the Escalade without regard to her safety. When no shots were fired, Morgan, Emily and lastly Tergensen followed quickly.

**Later**

The rundown donut shop had power and that's about all. Emily and JJ sat on either side of Garcia as she worked on her laptop. Reid and Morgan were at the counter ordering coffee and whatever else they could get. Guerin and Tergensen were in the washroom.

"Geotagging," Carmo said from behind Garcia where she stood looking over the other woman's shoulder.

"I know," Garcia grinned, "sweet isn't it."

There were only about twenty pictures on the card. Most of them were of an older man and a young woman in various settings around what seemed to be a hospital. The rest were individual shots of Ramirez and the same young woman as in the shots with the older man. There was one shot of Ramirez and the young woman together.

Morgan and Reid returned to the table each carrying four cups of coffee. As they placed the paper cups on the table, Tergensen and Guerin returned from the washroom.

"Nancy," Guerin said her eyes on the laptop screen. She took the cup that was handed to her and sipped the strong black coffee.

"It looks like a hospital," Emily commented as Garcia began scrolling through the pictures again.

"More like a VA facility," Guerin said her voice flat. "Ramirez was wounded in Afghanistan just like me."

"So where does all this fit in and why were you guys ambushed at the gym?" JJ asked not expecting an answer.

When Guerin said nothing, Tergensen spoke up. "They wanted her dead so they had somebody waiting where they thought she might eventually show up."

"She was expendable," Emily sighed as she leaned back arms crossed over her chest.

"They never really expected her to actually kill me, I'm sure," Guerin spoke her voice still low and emotionless. "She was guaranteed to be a distraction - if she got to me - and they never expected to pay her off. If she ever made it back to the gym looking for her money, they could take her out there. Either way, she never had a chance."

"So what now?" Morgan asked. "And why was she hiding that photo card?"

"It has to be important," Emily mused. "It was the last thing on her mind when she died," she looked over her shoulder at Guerin. "She wanted you to have it so it must mean something."

When no one said anything Garcia filled the void. "So let's go there and find out." Before anyone could ask 'where', Garcia opened another window and a map popped up with a red arrow pointing at a location in rural Virginia to the south and west of DC. Under the arrow were GPS co-ordinates and the name of a Veteran's Administration facility.

"Yes, even offline I'm that good thanks to the help of a GPS camera and an SD card with geotagging." Snapping her laptop shut, she picked up the coffee that was left for her. "Whenever you're ready crime fighting detectives."

**Later**

The morning had turned out sunny and mild for February. The air was crisp and damp with the smell of mud and wood smoke. The VA facility turned out to be a renovated and expanded older two story house. To one side of the parking lot was a newer wing that unfortunately had none of the charm of the older building with its wide porch and stone chimneys. Smoke curled from one chimney in the center of the building drifting lazily upward into the still air.

Morgan, Emily, Guerin and Reid climbed the short set of chipped concrete steps and approached the facility along the walkway that led to the front door. Reid dropped back a step falling in beside Guerin. He could feel her foul mood radiating off her like so many small daggers.

"She was just like me, you know," Guerin said to Reid without looking at him. "And they used her just the same way as they're using me."

Once inside, Morgan took the lead. Pulling his ID folder out, he caught the eye of a young woman in hospital scrubs approaching from a side hall. "Hi, we're with the FBI, we'd like to ask you…"

"About Nancy Smalley?"

Morgan did not let the question throw him. Putting away his ID he took out Garcia's iPhone and held it up so the woman could see the picture Garcia had transferred from her laptop of Ramirez and the other woman.

"That's Nancy with Sergeant Ramirez. Cindy Ramirez."

"She was a patient here?" Emily asked. "Was Nancy her nurse?"

"Oh, no. Nancy worked part time in the kitchen," the woman answered. "She got a job here so she could spend more time with her grandfather. She's all he has…" the woman broke off suddenly her expression pained. "All he _had_ left. You're here about her murder aren't you?"

Again Morgan didn't miss a beat. "We are investigating a related case." He held up the iPhone again. "This her grandfather?"

"Yes, that's him, George Smalley. He's been a resident here for a couple years ever since his Alzheimer's became too advanced for him to stay at home."

Morgan exchanged a look with Emily.

"What can you tell me about Sergeant Ramirez?" Emily asked.

The woman's face clouded at the name. "Cindy was hurt in Afghanistan," she started. "She was doing well; she and Nancy had become good friends."

Standing behind Emily, Guerin smiled to herself at the woman's clueless comment. From what she had felt from Ramirez it was obvious they were way more than friends.

"Then Cindy started to have problems with pain medication. She never could handle the pain caused by her wounds; always wanted more and more Percocet or Vicodin."

Emily could feel Guerin behind her bristle at the judgmental tone. "Cleaning up after themselves," Guerin whispered so Emily could hear, "killing the girlfriend: a possible source of information."

"Is it possible we could talk to Mr. Smalley?" Reid asked stepping forward.

The woman sighed. "You can try, I suppose," she replied. "He doesn't know what year it is most of the time now, let alone what day it is, and he hardly speaks anymore. Nancy was one of the few people who could reach him and that was hit or miss."

She started walking down the hall toward the main part of the old house the others following.

"Does he ever have any other visitors?" Guerin asked from the back of the group.

"There's one man that's here sometimes, not since the blackout though," she paused by the open door to a room on the right. "This is his room," she pointed out. "When he's not here, he's in the common room."

Guerin and Reid glanced in the room. It was neat and clean and the sun pouring in the large windows was reflecting off the glass of the many framed pictures on the walls. There were several heavy blankets on the tidy bed and a battery powered lamp on the bed table.

"Can you describe the visitor?" Emily asked, curious why Guerin would be interested.

"He was a tall man, dark hair, dark brown eyes kind of like yours," the woman looked directly at Emily when she said this.

"Do you know what kind of car he drove?" Guerin was standing at the doorway to the room watching as Reid wandered around looking at the pictures.

The woman had already started down the hall. She stopped and turned around at the question. "It was new and expensive, black I think; a big Detroit car."

"Maybe a Cadillac?"

The woman looked at Guerin. "Could be," she responded.

Reid popped his head out of the room. "Umm, can you tell me what Mr. Smalley used to do? Like his profession, his job?"

"He worked in computers for the Army; for years apparently. He was a genius before the Alzheimer's they say."

Reid looked at Morgan, spoke in an undertone, "We need Garcia to look at these pictures. It's like a history of computing in here going back to the 50's."

Morgan tossed him the Walkie-Talkie. "Go meet her at the door." He then turned to follow the nurse down the hall to the common room.

George Smalley sat in a wheelchair near, but not too close to, a large fireplace. There was no one else in the room.

"Thank god for the old fireplaces still working," the woman tossed another log into the grate. "Probably not fire code approved, but we have to stay warm. A lot of the residents went home with their relatives, those that could," her gaze travelled around the big empty room with its comfortable couches and tables and chairs. There was a dark flat screen TV on one wall.

"Thank you," Emily said pointedly to the staff nurse. "We'll call you if we need anything."

Though her expression said she didn't like being dismissed, the woman went anyway.

Emily looked at Guerin. "Do your thing. Figure out if he knows anything that will help us."

Guerin moved to the front of the old man's wheelchair stood staring down at him. When he did not meet her gaze, she squatted in front of him.

"I don't know where to start," she reached out and touched his hand. It was cool and feather light when she gripped it. He raised his eyes from where he had been staring at the blanket over his knees. When their eyes met, Guerin felt the shock of his illness.

Disorganization: a hundred separate thoughts swirling in his mind bouncing off one another randomly. It was almost painful and for a moment Guerin recoiled. Taking a breath, she tried to refocus, holding her thoughts to the tall, dark man; The Man in the Car.

He was there in a fragmented sort of way like jumbled frames from a movie. He was either standing in the background or sitting close by. There seemed to be no words said and Guerin realized that even if George could speak coherently, he didn't know the man; there was no sense of recognition whatsoever.

Guerin sighed sitting back. She ran a hand through her hair and was about to report her failure when she felt Reid coming down the hall his excitement palpable.

When he entered the room he went directly to one of the tables and carefully put down the photograph he held. "Guerin, come look at this," when he looked up his eyes were animated.

Guerin approached the table, stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes went to the picture. "Holy fucking shit!"

"I know, I can't believe it either," Reid was digging in his messenger bag. Eventually he pulled the rolled drawings from the very bottom. Separating two, he held down the corners with a couple cups and saucers that had been left on the table. He placed the photograph at the top.

Emily and Morgan looked at the three pictures. In the photograph at the top, a group of people stood casually, yet still somewhat posed, on the steps and verandah of a tidy looking farmhouse. In the foreground was a red truck of a 1930's vintage.

The two pictures below, one drawn by Guerin and one by Reid, were amazingly similar. The drawings contained everything the photograph did except for the people. Even the red truck was there just parked differently.

"That house? " Emily almost stuttered when she spoke. "That house where Bennett dumped the women he killed?"

Reid just nodded. Both he and Guerin were staring at the old man in the wheelchair. "It's a place to start," Guerin looked at Reid.

"Everything seems to be coming back to the beginning, full circle, don't you think?" Reid and Guerin smiled at each other as if they shared a special secret. The moment was broken by Garcia.

"Wow, this guy is like awesome-sauce," she bustled into the room. "He was into computers way back when they were just a string of beads in a rack. Bell Labs, DARPA, IBM when _'Business Machines' _stillmeant _cha ching_ accounting machines and not z/OS million dollar mainframes."

"Can you back me up, Reid?" Guerin looked from Garcia to the old man.

Again Guerin squatted in front of the old man in his wheelchair this time with Reid beside her. As Guerin took the old man's wrinkled hand once again, the room and Garcia's "Are they going to read his mind…" comment faded away.

This time she could see her way through his jumbled thoughts much better with the context of his technical background. There were snippets of meetings or design sessions, complex diagrams, flow charts, mathematical equations and statistical analysis. None of it meant anything to her, she didn't have the background. She just let it flow through her and into Reid.

Moving deeper into his mind she formed a solid image of the farmhouse as he had known it and not the tumbled ruin it had become. He didn't seem to _'see'_ it as she presented it so she pushed it into his mind.

"_My back door!"_ his mind shouted and he seemed to scramble as if to hide from her. Beside her Guerin felt Reid's surprise and, with his help, sent soothing thoughts toward and around the old man. After a long moment he seemed to calm down, yet the image of the house still made him agitated. "_My secret!"_ his mind said. The jumbled thoughts became darker and Guerin felt Reid's reaction again as together they thought of the house and its sinister basement.

"_They hurt her because of me_," this thought came through clearly and Guerin tried to grab it. It was hard to hold as it was so steeped in emotion. There was pain and guilt and the image of a pretty young woman dressed in a 50's skirt and sweater. "_Blackmail!"_ slammed Guerin painfully and she realized the woman had been hurt, tortured maybe, to coerce the old man.

"What is your secret? What is it about this old house?" Guerin demanded of him holding fast to his mind as he tried to pull away. Again he seemed to calm and his thoughts slowed down. There was a more recent image of the house from his mind: it was no longer intact and looked like it had been heavily damaged by a fire, though it was not nearly as wrecked as when she and Reid had seen it with their own eyes. He was walking toward it across the barren field and, as he got close, Guerin could smell the burnt wood.

"_They hurt her here so I'll hide it here_," in his mind he was sly and pleased with himself.

"Hide what?" Guerin pressed.

"_My secret_."

Though she didn't understand what he meant, she followed him in his mind as he pulled aside several beams and charred floor boards and made his way down into the basement. "_Deliver me from evil," _he whispered to himself as he flipped on a flashlight and panned the beam around. Instantly his mind became so filled with revulsion he almost fled. Even though he remained it was very difficult for Guerin and Reid to sort out what he did next he was so agitated. All Guerin could make out was something about a loose brick in the old chimney.

"_He hid something in the old house."_ Guerin heard Reid say in her mind. "_It was something important enough to kill for_."

Slowly Guerin broke the connection between Reid and herself and the old man. When she stood up, her knees cracked audible. Without a word to the others, Guerin and Reid went to the table and stared down at the three images.

"I bet that's him," Guerin pointed to a boy in the photograph. The boy stood on the bottom step of the house his hand in that of a pretty young girl who was probably a year or two older than him. "What ever happened with her, happened later."

Reid nodded. "What do you suppose his secret is?"

"I dunno, but I really want to find out," Guerin ran her fingertips over the drawing she had made of the old house before it was burned nearly to the ground. The drawing she had made from her memory of the place.

"Are you two going to share with us?" Emily's voice was contrite.

Reid looked up from the pictures almost startled to hear her speak. He looked around meeting the concerned gaze of his friends and colleagues. Garcia was staring at him with nothing short of wonder.

Guerin let Reid explain, watched him slightly amused as he told Morgan, Garcia and Emily about the old house and its hidden secret.

"That same house that Bennett's mother's family owned?" Garcia questioned, her tone serious. When Reid nodded she continued. "I thought the name Smalley was familiar. No, it wasn't Bennett's mother's name, but the Smalley family was connected by marriage somehow. I'll have to check my notes."

"I'd like to do some more research," Reid looked at Morgan, then Emily. "I'd like to know his place in the history of computers. It might help us understand him better."

"Not much you can do with the Internet down, dude," Morgan told his friend.

"Nothing except go to the library," Reid smiled.

Everyone was moving out of the room and into the hall except for Guerin who hung back. She stood in the doorway staring at the old man in the wheelchair. When she thought she saw his eyes move to her she felt a chill and blinked rapidly. Focusing again on him she passed off the movement of his eyes to a trick of the light, but the chill she felt could not be so easily dismissed.

**Later**

Guerin sat in the back seat of the Ford truck running the chain with Ramirez's ID tag through her fingers. She had been silent for the last hour as she, Emily and Morgan drove toward the wrecked house. Slipping the chain back in her pocket, she picked up the rifle from the seat beside her and checked the bolt and magazine – again.

"So everything comes back to this place?" Morgan said looking across at Emily in the front passenger seat beside him.

"I guess," Emily replied. "I just don't get the connection between the old man and all that's happened."

"It has to be related," Morgan glanced in the rearview mirror at Guerin. "Why come after us, after Guerin, if they didn't think we were a threat or knew something."

"It's a stretch putting it all together…"

"It all fits," Guerin interrupted. "I know it does."

The three were silent again for a few minutes until Emily pointed to the right. "Here, Morgan, turn here."

When the Ford truck turned into the narrow, overgrown track, the Escalade with Tergensen, Garcia and Carmo, and the Range Rover with JJ and Reid kept going.

"We're off to find a library," JJ said through the Walkie-Talkie. "Keep in touch."

Morgan was able to drive the truck almost all the way to where the track opened up into the field in front of the house. Pulling out into the open, he turned the truck around and drove a short way back under the cover of a patch of thick evergreens just around a bend in the old road.

The three started toward the old wrecked house Guerin carrying the scoped rifle the butt loose against her shoulder. Morgan toted an MP5. Emily was empty handed except for her Glock.

Morgan glanced at her. "I thought you were going to bring the shovel and crow bar?"

"Shit," Emily swore, "keep going, I'll catch up with you." She turned back toward the road and the parked truck.

Emily was leaning in the back of the Ford truck reaching for the crow bar and shovel when she felt, as much as heard, the movement behind her. Before she could react she felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against her neck.

"Look what got delivered to me," said a voice Emily had heard before and never expected to hear again.

Turning her head just slightly she looked into the cold eyes of JF Bennett.

Deliver Me – Roch Voisine

Next, Chapter 6: I'll Stand By You


	6. I'll Stand By You

A/N: Sorry for the long delay in updating I was away for a bit on vacation. This is a long chapter with lots of tension and action. Special thanks to my wife for her expert assistance with a crucial part of the puzzle. And thanks as always to everyone for staying with me on this long journey – the end is actually in sight believe it or not! I don't like saying this but I will just this once: Please read and review. It's been such a long, tough road for me and your reviews really do make a difference. Thanks, Alice …

**Chapter 6: I'll Stand By You**

"Oh, the GPS just came up!"

Reid touched a couple places on the screen of the Range Rover's main computer and began scrolling through maps. "Let me try…" his voice trailed off as he pulled out the keyboard and began typing. "Oh, good. The mobile Internet is connecting. I'll do a search on libraries around here."

JJ was concentrating on driving. When she hit a straight stretch in the rural road she began pulling off her heavy jacket. With a flick of her right hand she pushed it toward Reid's side of the vehicle. Reid caught the jacket and draped it over his knee. Looking back at the computer screen he noticed a folded piece of paper had fallen from the jacket and landed in his lap.

Ignoring the computer, he opened the paper and began to read:

_In the morning after dark when the night fades away, I know you are here, feel you so near. A promise you made, and I can say, I know I need you close, know with you I feel the most. Please hold me, let me know, you won't ever let me go._

JJ grabbed at the paper in Reid's hand.

**Same time**

Guerin and Morgan, separated by about ten yards, were almost to the wrecked house when Guerin felt Emily's shock and fear slap her mind. Her foot as she stepped forward faltered as if she had twisted her ankle.

Morgan was turning toward her when the first shot was fired. It would have hit Guerin except for her uneven step.

"Run for it!" Morgan shouted sparing a glance back at a figure near the road.

Morgan made for the left side of the ruined house as Guerin zig-zagged toward the right. They were under fire from two directions when they reached the relative cover of what was left of the old building. Leaning to his left, Morgan fired off a short burst in the direction he thought the last shots had come from.

"Do you see them?" he shouted at Guerin.

Guerin was holding her rifle tight to her chest as she leaned against the remains of an outer wall. "Jesus fucking Christ, Prentiss!"

When Morgan looked at her again, he noticed her eyes were squeezed tightly closed. A round blasted through the old plaster to his right as he pulled the walkie talkie from his belt. "Prentiss! We've been ambushed! Prentiss! Do you read?"

There was no reply. Snapping the walkie talkie back on his belt, Morgan looked at Guerin. "I can't reach, Emily!"

Guerin didn't reply. She was trying to sort through the jumbled images from her mind: Emily's surprise and instant fear as she recognized Bennett, pain from a blow to the head, an even deeper fear bordering on panic as she felt herself being dragged toward, then pushed into a vehicle, and lastly the despair as the vehicle began to move.

"Oh, God damn it," Guerin took a quick look out at the field trying to see if she could find the vehicle Emily had been taken in. A shot hitting the wood just above her head made her pull back.

Squinting her eyes tightly shut she reached for Reid.

**Same time**

"Tell me you're happy to see me," Bennett looked down at Emily as the van began to move.

Emily said nothing just kicked at his legs as the van bounced over the rough track that led back to the paved road. For a moment she thought she might gain her feet and be able to fight him, then she was grabbed from behind and her arms pulled back.

"She's a tiger," a voice said at her ear, "a fighter just as you like them." Emily could feel the other man sneering.

"I usually prefer blondes," Bennett squatted catching her knees and holding them down hard. "But you are going to be extra special, Ms FBI," he let go with one hand and slapped Emily across the cheek.

Emily spit blood at him and continued to struggle. "How did you get out of custody?"

"I have friends," Bennett said. The van jerked violently as it gained the hard surface of the main road and turned left accelerating. "I'm useful to them so they let me have my fun," his hands travelled up Emily's thighs. "Imagine my surprise and delight when we got the call from the bitch nurse at the VA that the FBI was there."

This time he punched her hard on the jaw. Emily felt her mind go fuzzy as her body became disconnected. At the fringes of her awareness she felt Guerin; and surprisingly someone else.

"I'm supposed to be back there finding out what you're after," Bennett was still talking. "But how could I pass up having fun with you? My guys will take care of your friends," he leaned over her pressing his body onto her as he grabbed her hair with one hand, "and I'll take care of you."

Emily renewed her struggle as she felt the van turn to the right and go down a sharp dip. It rocketed up the other side of the gully and crossed over a level area with a distinct thump thump of the tires.

**Same time**

"Stop the car!"

"What?"

"It's Emily! Turn around!"

JJ slammed both feet on the brake of the Range Rover and cranked the wheel hard over to the left. Gravel spewed from the shoulder of the road as the back wheels fought for purchase. When all four wheels were on the road, the tires screamed as the Range Rover juddered the stability control kicking in to keep the vehicle from tipping over. When the back end swung around, JJ stomped her foot on the gas.

"Where? What?" she snapped at Reid.

"I…" Reid had his eyes shut tight one had clutching the computer console the other on the grab bar over the window. _"Guerin, where?" _

**Same time**

"_Emily? They're coming back. Where are you?"_

Guerin spared only a brief moment to look out at the field. When she saw movement in the trees near the road she fired a shot.

"We can't hold out long," Morgan was saying from the other side of the wrecked house. "They'll take their time until we are out of ammunition. I tried Garcia. They must be out of range."

Emily's mind was a jumble of emotions the main one being fear; true fear. When Guerin pressed harder trying to reach her she felt Emily resist as she had resisted her once before.

"_Damn you! It's not the time for that! Let me in! Let me help you! Reid and JJ are coming back."_

At the mention of JJ, Emily's mind opened enough for Guerin to just reach her. Guerin could feel the press of Bennett's body against her, his groping hands, and Emily's revulsion.

"_Give me something, anything, so JJ can find you! They're not that far!"_

Through her struggling body and mind, Guerin felt the vehicle she was in dip down then go sharply up and over something that jarred the tires with an unmistakable rhythm.

Guerin pushed those thoughts on to Reid before turning to Morgan.

"Just another day in the Panjwai district," she grinned at him before turning to sight through the scope of her rifle.

**Same time**

JJ glanced at Reid, noted the puzzled look on his face.

"Reid? What's going on? What are you…"

He shushed her with a frantic wave of his hand as he concentrated hard on the images Guerin was sending him.

He was aware they were moving at a breathtaking speed back down the road and with one part of his mind he was even able to see the thrown up gravel as they passed the side road that led to the wrecked house. JJ noticed the tracks as well as her foot pressed even harder on the accelerator.

Thumpa-thumpa…

Suddenly he had it. "Train tracks!" He turned to the computer and brought up the GPS map. The connection to the GPS satellite had gone offline again but the map was still on the screen. He scanned the map, looked up to try to determine their position in relation to the map. When they began to enter a gentle turn to the left he had it.

"Slow down, JJ! Slow down. It's coming up on the right."

On the map the old train line was marked as a recreational trail and it paralled the road they were on for a short while. The road they were looking for crossed it at 90 degrees.

"Here!" Reid shouted and braced himself as JJ braked again.

She had overshot the side road and began to back up. When they turned into the dirt road they went immediately down into a gully then right back up. At the top of the gully on the other side, they went over a series of rough, weathered boards that had once been the railroad crossing. The Range Rover's tires made a distinct thump thump as they passed.

"What happened to Emily, Reid? Tell me," JJ's hands on the wheel were damp. She had not needed the weird connection Reid had with Guerin to know that something very bad had happened to Emily.

Reid swallowed hard before answering. "Bennett abducted her. She's in the back of something like a van. He's…"

"Bennett?"

Reid saw JJ's eyes go wide with horror when she recognized the name. But it was only for a moment. With a huff of breath her face changed to such a look of determination and anger that, for just a moment, he actually felt afraid, not for Emily but for Bennett.

"Tell her I'm coming, Reid!" When Reid didn't answer, she shouted it.

"TELL HER I'M COMING!"

**Same time**

"They're going to flank us," Guerin shouted to Morgan. "Move up on both sides through the trees."

Morgan nodded. "How many rounds do you have left?" he checked his MP5. He had fired most of the first clip and had one to spare. Other than that he had his Glock.

"I have 10 rounds in the rifle and my Browning."

Morgan watched as Guerin seemed to smile slightly. "You go, girl," he heard her say under her breath. With that situation as close to being under control as possible, Guerin reached out for Tergensen feeling her reaching back confused and anxious.

"_Turn around, Dev. We need help."_

**Same time**

Emily bucked her hips as Bennett's hands worked at her belt.

"_Hold on, she's coming,"_ she felt Guerin's thought touch her mind. There was just a glimpse of JJ with the thought, her face rigid with determination as she drove the Range Rover. Emily had only a second to realize the image came from Reid.

When she kicked out at Bennett she was able to get her heel into his thigh. He bellowed with pain and rage his fist pounding down on her again. She turned her head at the last second and the blow caught her on the ear stunning her.

**Same time**

The Range Rover came out into the open field from the cover of the trees. JJ turned right onto another dirt road that followed the border of a muddy field.

"There!" Reid shouted, pointing ahead and to the left.

A large white van was moving rapidly down a dirt track that defined the other border of the field. JJ took only a moment to pick her spot.

Reid sucked in a breath as he braced himself hard against the seat waiting for the Range Rover to leave the road.

JJ picked the perfect spot.

All four wheels spun in the open air as the vehicle went air born for several seconds before crashing down with a thump that sent Reid's head into the roof. JJ fared better as her seat restraints were a 5-point racing harness.

Mud flew from the back of the Range Rover as JJ pointed it on a diagonal path toward the speeding van its driver oblivious to their rapid approach.

"A little to the left," Reid advised his voice tight. He knew exactly what JJ intended.

The big, customized four-wheel drive raced across the field, dipped down into the shallow ditch, lurched up onto the road at the rear of the van and clipped its back left bumper – hard.

The van went into an immediate spin as the Range Rover carried on across the narrow road and into the field on the other side.

JJ hands slapped the steering wheel as she turned it all the way to the left. Both feet were on the brake as the Range Rover turned mud flying in a great arc behind. Her right foot slammed down on the gas pedal even as her left foot gave a gentle pressure to the brake.

When the vehicle completed the 360 turn and was pointed back toward the road, Reid let out the breath he had been holding. The white van's nose faced them; its back end was in the ditch on the other side of the track.

Reid had only a moment to breathe before JJ slammed on the brakes. Jamming the Range Rover into park, she opened her door with left hand and drew her Glock with her right. Standing on the running board she fired two neat shots through the windshield of the van. Reid watched the van driver's body buck as the shots took him in the chest.

"Go right, Reid. I got the left."

She was already off and running toward the van when Reid drew his revolver from its holster.

The back doors were open when JJ made it around the van. She caught Reid's eye and motioned for him to stay back.

Taking up a combat stance about 5 yards from the back of the van she waited. There was movement from the dark inside of the van and Emily appeared with handgun pressed to her right temple and an arm holding her tight across the chest.

"One move and she's dead," a voice JJ had never heard said. When Bennett peaked out from behind Emily she recognized him and tightened her grip on her weapon.

"Let her go!"

Bennett did not loosen his grip as he forced Emily from the back of the van. When they were fully out of the van, JJ felt her rage move into the impossible range. Emily's face was bleeding and both her pants and shirt were undone.

"Drop the gun and I'll let her go."

JJ knew there was no truth in that statement and held her position.

Bennett peaked out from behind Emily again and JJ saw him smile when their eyes made contact.

"A blonde with a gun, how funny is that?" Bennett taunted. He ducked back behind Emily's head, peaked out, ducked back. Each time JJ's finger tightened on her trigger.

Her full concentration was on Bennett but she still saw Emily squeeze her eyes shut in a slow, meaningful blink.

The next time Bennett peaked out, JJ's finger fully depressed the Glock's trigger.

Time seemed to move very slowly forward as Bennett's head snapped back a neat, red dot appearing squarely between his eyes. The weapon in his right hand dropped to the ground and his left arm lost its grip as Emily moved forward and to the left away from him.

JJ stared down the barrel of her Glock as Bennett fell backward slowly to land flat on his back in the mud. Her hands still rock steady she gently lowered her weapon and breathed out.

Time lurched forward again as behind Emily Reid appeared at the side door of the van. He pulled back slightly and fired two shots into the van his face scrunched in revulsion.

"Clear!" Reid shouted. "There's no one else."

Quickly JJ holstered her weapon and moved toward Emily catching her as she started to fall forward. Grabbing Emily with her left hand she looked down and Bennett.

"A bullet in your fucking head, how funny is that, asshole!"

JJ began kicking at the inert body her rage finally boiling over. "Teach you to fuck with my girl! Didn't I? Didn't I?" each phrase was punctuated with a kick. "You scum sucking, mother fucking…"

"JJ."

"JJ…"

Snapping back to the present, JJ looked at Emily. "I'm OK, Jennifer," Emily leaned into her lover.

JJ gave Bennett's body one more kick and began leading Emily back toward the Range Rover. When they reached the passenger side, JJ pushed Emily down onto the running board beside the open door.

Kneeling in front of her, JJ began to redo the buttons on Emily's pants and shirt. "He didn't, JJ," Emily said in a soft voice, "he didn't have time."

Finishing buckling her belt, JJ met Emily's eyes her expression fierce.

"You are always safe with me. Always loved by me and I will always, always protect you."

Emily's face crumpled as her eyes filled with tears. Behind her, JJ heard Reid sigh heavily. Leaning forward, JJ pressed her cheek against Emily's cheek ignoring the smear of blood from Emily's bleeding nose.

"I've got you Em, I won't ever let you go. You know that, right?"

When she felt Emily nod, JJ pulled back.

"I'll always stand by you; always be there for you."

When Reid passed her Emily's holstered Glock, JJ clipped it back onto her belt on her left side.

"Thanks," Emily said, taking in both of them.

Reaching past Emily into the Range Rover, JJ retrieved a water bottle and a wad of paper napkins. Dribbling the water liberally over several napkins, she wiped the blood and tears from Emily's face. Then with both hands, she ran her fingers through Emily's loose, tangled hair. Finding several gobs of something she didn't want to contemplate, she washed them out with water from the bottle.

"I worried I couldn't protect you," Emily's voice was soft as JJ rebound her hair in its usual ponytail, "and here you saved me." Emily looked up meeting JJ's eyes again her expression so open and vulnerable JJ stopped breathing for a moment. "Will you ever cease to amaze me?" the corner of Emily's mouth crooked in just the slightest smile.

JJ stared at her for a long moment before leaning forward and kissing Emily's forehead.

"I hope not."

Reid shuffled his feet behind them. "We need to get back. Morgan and Guerin need us."

"You drive."

As Reid settled into the driver's seat he glanced at JJ as she positioned herself on Emily's lap on the passenger seat.

"Where did you learn to drive like that? That wasn't FBI training."

JJ looked at him a slight smile creasing her mouth and eyes. She didn't answer.

"Ah," Reid said as he started the Range Rover back down the dirt track at a fast clip. "Rural Pennsylvania?"

"Uh huh."

**A few minutes later**

Reid guided the Range Rover into the road that led to the old house the Escalade driven by Tergensen right behind them. Before they had reached the field they could hear the shots. He pulled the vehicle to a stop just behind the Ford truck. When he jumped out he went right to Tergensen.

"They are in the trees to the left and the right," Tergensen said what he already knew. "Guerin thinks there's only two."

On the passenger side of the Range Rover JJ handed Emily the Remington shotgun. "Does this help you feel better?" she asked with a grin.

"A bit," Emily chambered a round with a rake of the slide.

Walking toward Reid and Tergensen, JJ took charge. "Go to the left, Devin. Em and I will go right. Reid you stay here."

Reid did not have time to protest as the three women disappeared into the woods. He watched them go for a moment before walking back toward the Escalade.

"Is Emily alright?" Garcia asked before he could say anything. Garcia had her hand clasped over Carmo's wrist where the tall woman leaned between the seats her expression agitated. "Tergensen said something about Bennett?" the disbelief in Garcia's voice was plain.

"She's fine, Garcia," Reid responded his face cracking into a smile. "You should've seen JJ. Just like that time she…" he didn't finish, he didn't have to as they were both thinking of the incident with the man who had shot Garcia and JJ's perfect aim that time in the BAU bullpen.

Dead leaves thick on the ground covered any sound of their footsteps. Ahead of them there was another sharp crack as the hidden shooter fired toward the old house. JJ motioned Emily to hang back as she moved closer.

There was a structure of sorts just ahead at the edge of the trees. JJ saw movement coming from inside the partially collapsed walls. She couldn't see him when she was behind the little building so she moved farther around the other side.

Just as she moved far enough to see him sight through the scope of the rifle he held, they was a single shot from the direction of the wrecked house. Wood splintered above the man's head and he ducked back his face and rifle turning toward JJ. She could see the rifle was pointed directly at her chest and even saw him smile as he started to pull the trigger. She was holding her Glock too low to get off a shot in time.

Two successive booms from Emily's shotgun felled him from behind before he could pull the trigger. The rifle fell from his grasp and he flopped forward taking the side of the little building with him.

Emily walked around the front of the small, wooden structure. "Is this a…"

"Yeah," JJ replied bending to pick up the rifle. "It's an outhouse." She raised her walkie talkie and spoke into it. "Clear on the right. Cease fire. It's me and Emily."

There were two shots from somewhere off to the left and Tergensen's voice called an all clear on the walkie talkie. JJ and Emily started walking across the field to the house JJ leaning into Emily in an unsaid thank you.

**A few minutes later**

Guerin handed the half empty water bottle to Morgan who downed the rest. "Why did we come here again?" he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Cause, you know, I've been shot at so many times today I kinda lost track, know what I'm sayin'?"

"The old man hid something in the basement," Reid replied as he pulled up a board and exposed the old stone steps that led down to the cellar. "Anyone got a flashlight?"

Reid led the way down followed closely by Guerin and Morgan. When he reached the bottom of the stairs Reid stepped down into several inches of water as he panned his light around. At the farthest corner of the cellar the light played across something large and a papery white.

Behind him Reid felt a surge of shock and horror from Guerin and quickly moved his light back to the white blob expecting to see a decomposing body. Instead, what his light picked out was a wasp nest, a very big wasp nest.

Guerin was still scrambling backward on the stone steps almost knocking over Morgan in her haste to get away. Reid could feel her panic, her absolute fear. "It's February," he called over his shoulder. "They won't hurt you."

Guerin was already up the stairs and out into the open. "I hate them I hate them I hate them…" she was saying over and over her shoulders shaking as she knelt on the cold, dead grass.

"Phobia," Tergensen said to the others and she knelt next to Guerin wrapping her arms around the smaller woman. "I saw her freak out once before when she was surprised by a little nest in the backyard shed at our house. She almost went through the wall to get away from it." She patted Guerin on the back holding her tight. "Firefights and IEDs in Afghanistan didn't bother her, but a hornet's nest…"

Back in the cellar, Morgan joined Reid at the bottom of the stairs. They made their way over to where the old chimney came through the floor. It was partially collapsed on one side just a tumble of old bricks and mortar. Reid began systematically going over the bricks that remained intact while Morgan sorted through the jumbled pile.

After five minutes or so and several false alarms, Reid found one that moved when he touched it. Grasping its edges he wiggled the brick from its place. Shining his light in the hole, he saw a small tin wrapped in plastic.

"Morgan, I found it."

**Several hours later**

"I can't believe I'm camping. I can't believe it's February. I can't believe I'm camping in February!" Garcia added the last sentence tying the two thoughts together as she approached the picnic table her laptop computer under her arm.

She sat next to Morgan and leaned into him as he put his arm around her. "Strange days, baby girl, strange days."

Above them a huge blue tarp was strung up between the trees protecting the area underneath where the picnic table sat. To the left was a large screen tent from which the smell of spaghetti sauce and garlic wafted. Emily and JJ, with Carmo helping, were busy cooking within the shelter Emily and JJ talking in low tones. On the edges of the camp, Guerin and Tergensen were walking back and forth rifles held low but ready. Reid sat at the picnic table across from Morgan his eyes on the tin box where it sat unopened and placed exactly in the middle of the table.

Garcia pulled her jacket closer around her body noticing the weight that dragged down one pocket. When she pulled out the little .380 pistol and placed it on the table her expression was annoyed. She nudged it with a finger pushing it closer to Morgan who smiled at her indulgently.

"How about I teach you how to shoot?" Morgan nudged the handgun back toward Garcia.

"How about you don't," Garcia pushed it back toward him, "cause I don't want to know."

"OK, then how about I show you how to point it menacingly?"

Garcia thought for a moment before nodding.

"I can do menacing," she smiled and bumped him with her shoulder. Morgan laughed patting her hand. Across the table even Reid was smiling.

"Dinner is about to be served," Emily came out of the screened tent and began laying out plates. "Come and get it," she raised her voice to include Guerin and Tergensen.

Although the mood around the table was light, they ate in silence. Every now and then someone would steal a glance at the tin box. A half an hour later when all the spaghetti and garlic bread was consumed and the dishes washed and put away, decision time had come.

"Who's going to open it?" Garcia asked looking around the table and father out where Morgan was patrolling.

Guerin leaned over the foot she had propped on the seat beside Tergensen. "Reid should. He found it."

All eyes at the table turned to Reid as he stood and reached toward the box. He moved it under the light cast from one of the lanterns and carefully began to unwrap the rigid plastic. Morgan moved closer sparing a look now and then over his shoulder across the empty campground.

When the plastic was removed, Reid pried off the top. Placing the tin box back on the table he carefully reached inside and withdrew a stiff, folded paper. As he opened it he realized it was an 8 x 10 black and white photograph.

"Careful," Garcia warned realizing what it was. "Old photographs can be very delicate and should never be folded."

"Too late for that," Reid said as he pulled open the last crease. The photograph was folded in on itself and was slightly stuck together. Gently he laid it on the table and everyone leaned in to look.

A group of about twelve men were standing or sitting in front of a huge stone fireplace. Behind them rustic beams spread toward the high ceiling on either side of the fireplace and in the background, a mounted moose head could just be seen. In front of the group a bearskin, complete with grinning head, was laid out. None of the men were smiling.

"Looks like a hunting or fishing lodge," Emily said. "My father used to go to one up in the woods in eastern Canada. It was owned by an old, rich family. I forget who."

There was silence for a moment until JJ leaned closer and pointed to one of the men. "That guy reminds me of Sam Walton. I did a project on him in high school."

There was silence for another moment until Garcia pointed to another man. "He reminds me of the guy that ran IBM in the 60's. Or was it HP? One of the first and biggest computer companies; I can't remember."

That let loose the floodgates and, after a few minutes, a lot of the men had been identified or at least speculated on, as captains of industry and business in North America from the late 1960s and into the 1970s.

Reid flipped the picture over. On the back in a cursive script was handwritten:

_**The Watch That Ends the Night, Gloucester Brook Lodge, 1969**_

"What does that mean?" Garcia asked, "The Watch That Ends the Night?"

"That's an interpretation of Psalm 90," Reid's voice was soft.

"Do you think that's what they called their little Boy's Club?" JJ's tone was not complimentary.

No one answered.

Reid realized then he had not checked the box to see if there was anything else. When he tipped the box upside down, an index card fluttered out landing on the table next to the picture.

Though it was smudged a number and one word could be made out:

**513.0284 Carnegie**

The reverse side was blank.

**A little while later**

JJ and Emily met Reid and Morgan as they were walking toward the cinder block building that held the toilets and showers.

"I got the hot water heater fired up," Morgan reported with a smile. "The water should be warm enough for you guys to shower. Just don't use up all the propane. The campground owners are going to be pissed enough at us as it is being here when they're not."

Emily was standing under the stream of hot water when she heard JJ enter the tiled enclosure behind here. "Reminds me of the gang showers in the boy's locker room in high school," JJ commented.

Emily was about to ask how she came by such a fact when she felt JJ's hands at her waist.

"Sit," JJ directed pulling Emily back as she slid a thigh tall stool under her behind.

Emily did as ordered hitching her heels up on the lowest rungs of the stool. JJ circled in front of her blocking the flow of water. In her hands she held a bar of soap. As she lathered the soap between her two hands she gazed at Emily.

"I can never get over how beautiful you are," JJ leaned into Emily her soapy hands passing over her lover's shoulders and then down over her breasts. Raising her chin with one hand, JJ kissed her tenderly, slowly, deeply.

Emily felt her body respond as her own hands moved over JJ's smooth, wet back and down her hips. After everything that had happened this day she didn't understand how she could be so quickly aroused, yet it seemed so natural to lose herself in JJ's sweet touch.

"I thought I might lose you," JJ said breaking the kiss. "I couldn't stand the thought of that." With the soap in her hand she moved up and down Emily's arms, across her back and neck and very gently over the bruise just starting on one of her cheeks.

"I will fight for you to my last breath," JJ was behind her now and the soap was replaced with shampoo as JJ's hands massaged her hair and scalp. "I would die for you in a heartbeat."

Emily felt the breath catch in her throat as her head dropped forward of its own accord.

"Jennifer…"

"I love you that much, Em."

JJ turned the stool around so Emily's back was to the flow of water. Both hands moved through her hair as the warm water washed away the shampoo. Again JJ kissed her. Emily felt herself melting as a soft moan escaped her.

Picking up the soap again, JJ washed Emily's legs and feet as she knelt in front of her. Emily just closed her eyes enjoying the sensation of her lover's hands mixing with the warm water on her skin.

After a time, JJ stood her eyes the darker blue Emily had come to know as her most sensual state.

"There's only one place left to wash…" JJ's voice trailed off suggestively as her hand with the soap bar moved between Emily's legs. With a sigh Emily pulled JJ close and reached to take the soap from her hand as she pressed her face between JJ's breasts. JJ's hand did not falter as Emily took the soap from her, in fact JJ's hand moved even more deeply and intimately when Emily shifted her feet up to higher rungs on the stool.

Emily rubbed the soap all over JJ's chest and back moving her head only to let the water wash away the suds before she took one of JJ's nipples in her eager mouth. Her hand still clutching the soap, Emily moved down JJ's back and between her firm buttocks reaching as far as she could.

JJ arched against her, the hand she had on Emily dropping away to grasp at Emily's back as sensation overwhelmed her. Emily didn't mind the loss of contact; never had she needed to feel a woman, taste a woman, as much as she did now.

Giving JJ's nipple a last tug with a gentle grasp of her teeth, Emily dropped to her knees on the floor in front of JJ burying her face in JJ's mound. JJ lifted one foot to a middle rung of the stool opening herself to Emily's hungry mouth. She groaned from her gut as Emily easily found and took her clit. The groan became a gasp as one of Emily's hands pressed strong fingers inside her.

Lost in the taste of her lover, the feel of her lover, Emily let all the pent up energy pour out of herself and into JJ. Such a short time, such a long time she made love to JJ with her eager body and determined mind. Eventually, Emily felt JJ's hands clutch even harder as they closed into tight fists in her hair her head going back as her gasp became a cry that echoed off the tile walls.

After a moment, as she rested against JJ's hip catching her breath, Emily laughed.

"There goes the hot water."

**A few minutes later**

Garcia could not help smiling as she watched Emily and JJ walking back from the shower building. They were leaning close to each other, touching and giggling in a way that only two people so in love and so oblivious could be.

A movement beside her drew her attention and Garcia looked at Devin Tergensen.

Tergensen was not smiling as she watched JJ and Emily her face was a mask of pain; a hurt so deep Garcia could not begin to imagine feeling such a thing. When Tergensen saw her looking she pivoted on her heel and walked rapidly away.

Garcia sighed and, smiling again, looked up at Emily and JJ as they approached the table.

"What have you two been up to?"

"Oh, nothing," JJ laughed hugging Emily.

**A few minutes later**

Guerin found Tergensen sitting on the tailgate of the Ford truck swinging her legs and staring at the ground. She sat beside her, their thighs touching. Without a word, Guerin watched the sky change colours as the sun set. Tergensen watched the shadows move across the dirt below her as she swung her foot back and forth.

"I never had anyone love me like that," Tergensen eventually said not looking at Guerin.

Guerin didn't ask for an explanation she knew what Tergensen meant.

"Me neither."

"Until Claire," Tergensen glanced at Guerin a lock of red hair partially obscuring her eyes.

"Yeah, until Claire," Guerin reached to smooth the hair back from the other woman's eyes, felt immediately how the touch both pleased and disturbed her in a complex way. "I won't ever love anyone like that again."

Tergensen looked up sharply. "You should, Guerin. I think she would want you to. Don't you?"

There was a pleading in Tergensen's eyes that Guerin did not want to accept or even to meet. Instead she began to talk.

"She didn't like me very much when she first met me, you know," Guerin smiled ironically, "but I loved her as soon as I saw her."

_I was sipping my second cup of coffee and opening my binder to go over the paper that was due for tomorrow's class when I heard the laugh. I looked up as a tall, red haired woman came out of the back room of the coffee shop pulling an apron over her head. Instantly I was attracted to her; she was everything I desired and I could not help but stare. She was laughing at something the other employee had said, responding in French with something like 'I know you missed me while I was up in Rimouski' or some such. When she leaned in to kiss the other girl I was mesmerized by the flash of desire that passed over the other woman's face for the briefest of seconds. It was a desire I now shared. When the other woman departed into the back, the red head looked up and caught me staring at her. Her eyes held mine a smile playing at her lips and I knew right then she was used to it; used to seeing desire, desire for her in the eyes of another._

_I hung out at the coffee shop longer than I usually did waiting for a moment when I could approach her and ask her out. When the moment finally came, I leaned over the bar and looked right at her. 'Would you like to go out for coffee with me some time?' I asked her in French. She met my gaze and I could see she was trying not to laugh. I felt instantly lame. 'We are in a coffee shop,' was her response. 'Yes,' I said, 'I know. Maybe someplace else? Some time?' She had looked at me quizzically probably wondering about my accent as I had let some of my Northern New Brunswick French creep into my words. When she did not reply I introduced myself. 'Good for you Guerin Garrison,' she said giving my last name a strong French turn. With that she turned and went in the back._

"The bitch!" Tergensen looked at Guerin her eyes playful. "How did you…"

"Win her over?" Guerin grinned. "This is the fun part."

_The next time I was in the coffee shop there was a handmade sign on the wall advertising an 'Open Mike Night'. The red head was on the customer's side of the bar drinking coffee probably just finishing her shift. 'Are you going to play, Claire, Friday night?' someone asked her. I saw her shoulders shrug noncommittally and knew by the way the guy smiled at her that she would. Perfect, I thought._

_On Friday night I was there before her seated at my usual table, my guitar case at my feet. I made no move to go to the little stage they had set up in the corner and after what seemed like forever, Claire came out of the back an acoustic guitar in her hands. She settled on the stool in front of the microphone and looked over the few – very few – people that constituted the audience. She did not meet my eye. Her first song was Celine Dion; a slow French song I did not know and when she did Helene by Roch Voisine half in French and half in English, I knew I was out of my league. When she was done she looked around and finally met my eye. 'Is there someone else that wants to play or should I continue with a few songs from the 70s? Anyone else?' She was looking directly at me. Her smile held a challenge along with the question. I didn't answer just got up and opened my guitar case. I was not surprised that Claire did not leave the stage, just gave up the stool in front of the mike for another stool just to the side. When I sat, her eyes were not on me, but on my guitar. 'A Larrivee? I hope you do that instrument justice.' I spared her only the slightest glance. I had planned to do a Blue Rodeo song as they tended to fit with my angsty style. I knew I was not the greatest guitarist or singer but I had… well, I had something. When I began to play it was not Blue Rodeo but a song by another East Coast singer, Lennie Gallant, who performed in both French and English._

"_He came knocking on her window pane, he said let me in, it's gonna rain…"_

_At the chorus I knew I had her when her voice joined in harmony with mine._

"_Which way does the river run, through this town? Which way does the wind blow, when the sun goes down?"_

Tergensen was silent for a long time just swinging one foot from the tailgate. Then, with a sigh, she slowly shifted her body until her head was in Guerin's lap and she was looking up at the woman above her.

"Mani thinks I loved Mich, you know," she finally said, "and I did. Just not in the way that I…" her voice trailed off and she took several deep breaths.

Guerin was not looking directly at her, did not want the connection of their minds. With one hand, she idly drew the two fingers of her right hand through Tergensen's hair, stroked her cheek. Guerin said nothing. What Tergensen needed to say had to be done without the complication of her interference.

"Would you… will you…" Tergensen started, paused. "Will you play for me some time Guerin?"

Guerin sighed heavily and looked out at the pine trees around their camp.

"I haven't played since Claire died, Dev. I just can't."

Tergensen seemed about to say something when there was a shout from the picnic table.

Reid's voice said "I got it! I figured it out!

**The next morning**

Garcia, Morgan and Reid were sitting in the Escalade in front of a small public library in northern Virginia not far the outskirts of DC. "Carnegie provided the funding for so many libraries across America," Reid was saying. "In fact he…"

"Shush Reid, here comes the librarian," Garcia hopped out of the back seat the other two scrambling to catch up with her.

"Doesn't look like a librarian," Morgan said under his breath.

Garcia gave him a scowl but let him do the talking.

**Same time**

Outside the library near the Ford truck, Emily and Guerin were having an argument.

"It's not safe to go back to your house, Guerin."

"I don't care. I've had enough running. They're going to find us no matter where we go so we might as well get it over with."

"So you're just going to give up?"

Guerin got in the passenger side of the truck as Carmo got in the back and Tergensen got behind the wheel.

"We're going home. Whatever happens we'll deal with it," Guerin slammed the door, leaned out the window and pointed off to the right. "If you feel the need to rescue us, we're only about five miles that way."

The Ford pulled away from the curb with a _chirp_ of rubber.

**Same time**

As the young man unlocked the front door of the handsome stone library, Morgan introduced himself and Reid and Garcia and began to explain how they needed access to the card catalog as they believed there was a book in the special collection that was of great interest to them and the investigation they were conducting into the cause of the blackout and all the other events surrounding it.

"We only got the power back yesterday," the librarian said as he flipped on the lights and went behind the counter of the reference desk. As he booted up the PC and turned the screen toward Garcia a big orange cat leaped to the desktop and began to rub against his hand.

"This is our Dewey," the librarian explained rubbing the cat's jaw with his knuckle. When the significance was lost on his visitors he just smiled. "What's the Dewey Decimal number?"

Reid pushed the old index card toward him and he keyed it into the library's catalog search engine.

One entry was displayed.

"That's in the Edith Smalley collection. All the books in that collection were donated by her husband George. She grew up in this town," he continued to talk as he led them through the main library and into a room at the back. This room was like the library in a mansion from the late 18th century might be. A stone fireplace, leather chairs, oil lamps – probably imitation. "He was a famous computer programmer and designer in the 60s. I heard he went to work for the government during the Cold War."

It took a full ten minutes for the librarian to find the book in the small room. When he pulled it out of the stack he stared at it perplexed.

**The Complete Book of the Abacus**

"That doesn't seem right. This seems more like a children's book. Nothing in this collection is remotely like this."

Garcia moved as if to snatch the book from his hands. Reid intercepted her. "May I?"

The librarian handed the book over. As he did they heard a door open and a voice call out, "Melvin?"

"Let me know if you need anything else." With that the librarian left the room and they were alone; with the book.

**Around the same time**

The power was off in the house and the great room appeared empty. Guerin walked to the center of the room; stood still. She could feel them.

"Easy, Dev," Guerin cautioned holding her hands out from her sides.

Tergensen was gazing around anxiously her right hand on her holstered weapon. Catching movement to the right she turned just as Carmo lunged. The tall woman was struck down with a blow to the head as several people rushed them.

"Don't shoot!" Guerin held up her hands.

**Around the same time**

Garcia moved to grab the book again but Reid shielded it with his body.

"Guys, guys," Morgan scolded them laughing.

"An abacus is considered the first computer," Garcia explained as Reid flipped through the pages with his thumb. There were over a hundred pages in the book, some with illustrations. Reid looked closer as something odd about the pages caught his attention.

"It's the same two pages over and over," he flipped more slowly through the book as Garcia and Morgan looked over his shoulder.

"This has to be it then," Morgan reached for the book.

Reid still didn't let it go just turned it upside down and shook it. When nothing fell out he began going through the pages one by one.

"Give me that," this time Garcia managed to wrench it from Reid's grasp. Before he could protest, she bent the spine back sharply. The book actually gave an audible_ crack_. Placing the book on the table in the room, Garcia flipped to the back. A seam had opened between the spine and the hard cardboard of back cover. She probed with her fingers under the paper and pulled out two translucent squares about four inches by four inches each.

"Oh my god I haven't seen these in forever," Garcia waggled one staring at the tiny writing visible as it caught the light.

"I don't suppose they have a microfiche reader?" Reid asked.

Back in the other room, the librarian smiled. "We do. A lot of our old newspapers are still on microfiche and some of the older people still like to use them." He pointed to a contraption in the corner.

Garcia hustled over and placed herself in the seat in front of the machine. She flipped the power switch and pulled out the slide inserting one of the microfiche between the two glass panels.

The three of them squinted at the illuminated monitor. They couldn't read it.

"Upside down," Reid made a gesture with his hand and Garcia pulled the microfiche out and flipped it. When she moved the light to the topmost left hand spot on the microfiche this time they were able to read.

"**In Through the Back Door"** it said followed by something only Garcia recognized.

"Oh, my god!" she literally bounced in her seat, "that's FORTRAN! I haven't seen that in like forever."

**Same time**

"I knew this would happen!" Emily guided the Range Rover past the gate house of the secure community where Guerin's house was located. No one came out to challenge them. JJ drew her Glock and checked the magazine her jaw tight.

The gate to Guerin's driveway was also open and in front of the house, beside the Ford truck, was a black Cadillac CTS.

"Damn," Emily swore.

**Same time**

"What does it say?" Morgan was impatient.

"It doesn't say anything!" Garcia scolded. "It's computer code! Old computer code!" She continued scanning through the lines on the microfiche talking as she did. "This part was FORTRAN at least. This," she paused, "this is COBOL. There's comments…" her brows furrowed in puzzlement.

With a flick of her wrist she pushed the light to the other side of the microfiche and down. "It's the same thing I think just in different languages. This looks like an early form of Unix. Let me see that other fiche."

For about five minutes Garcia played the light over the other microfiche. She was moving it so fast the other two could hardly follow.

Suddenly she sat back staring at the code on the screen. Reid and Morgan saw her face go pale.

"Oh ,my God!" Garcia lunged forward again pushing the slide so another block of information was illuminated. "It was in the firmware!" she moved the slide again, paused. "IBM mainframes!" again the slide moved, "Unix and Wintel servers," another flick, "HP Non-Stops! This is all early code but they propagated it into the new systems as they were developed! Propagated it from this same basic code from the late 50s! They…"

"They what, baby girl? What did they do?" Morgan asked very slowly, very calmly. He had never seen her so upset. Her hands were shaking and a line of sweat stood out on her forehead under her bangs.

"They couldn't have! No! They wouldn't have!" For a long moment Garcia paused, finally she turned to Morgan and Reid.

"They SHOULDN'T have!"

**Same time**

When Emily and JJ entered the house through the open front door, the first thing they saw was a tall, dark haired man standing with his back to them.

To one side Carmo lay still with her head in a pool of blood. Tergensen was next to her lying on her side, hands cuffed behind her back. Another man stood over her, handgun pointed at her head.

The tall man did not move at their approach but the eyes of the guard with the gun and another guard, a woman, off to the left followed them.

In front of the tall man another person knelt with a dark, cloth sack hiding their head. Emily recognized Guerin's clothes. Her hands were also cuffed behind her back.

"Hello, Emily," the tall man said as he turned. "It's been a very long time."

"Do you know him?" JJ asked.

Emily stared into the dark brown eyes that were just like her own.

"Hello, father. What are you doing here?"

xxxx

I'll Stand By You – Pretenders

Next, Chapter 7: I Would Die For You


	7. I Would Die For You

**Chapter 7: I Would Die For You**

Morgan was distracted.

He was watching Garcia closely, could see her mind working over the details. Several times she had opened her mouth as if to say something – to start to explain and each time she had stopped and resumed her concentrated speculation.

Now, behind them, several people were gathered around a television set that was blaring a news show. At least it seemed to be a news show since current events were being discussed, or rather, ranted about.

"I still say it was the same lot that caused 9-11! I just can't imagine how they got off their flying carpets long enough to do all that complex computer stuff. That or it was the Canadians! The 9-11 hijackers came to the US on flights from Canada, you know. And the blackout of 2003? That started in Canada…"

"That's not true," Morgan turned and started toward the TV but Garcia was already up from her seat and moving past him.

"Is that Ann Coulter?" she moved to where she could see the TV.

Both Morgan and Reid were staring at Garcia who was riveted to the TV and the scene from the FOX News anchor desk.

"You don't like her, do you?" Morgan asked gently dreading the answer.

"Oh, dear, yes!" Garcia exclaimed. "I love watching her!"

Morgan was flabbergasted until Garcia continued.

"In the same way I love watching a car wreck, you know. The shattering glass, screeching tires, bending metal, flying body parts…"

Morgan laughed giving her a quick hug. His next question he directed at the library patrons who were gathered around the TV. "Why don't you put on some other news, like CNN or MSNBC?"

"This is all that's on," a man explained without looking at Morgan. "Nothing else is back on yet."

Morgan exchanged a long look with Reid who raised his brows in a 'how strange is that?' gesture.

**Same time at Guerin's House**

The tall, dark haired man, who had just admitted to being Emily's father, did not have time to say anything else before JJ took three long steps forward and punched him as hard as she could in the jaw.

He wasn't knocked down, he was too big for that, but the blow both surprised and shook him. When JJ made to hit him again he pulled his head back and held up a protective hand. The guard who was standing to the right moved in raising her weapon.

"JJ," Emily caught one arm around the blonde's waist and pulled her back.

"Your father?" JJ began shaking her right hand rapidly. The blow had obviously hurt her nearly as much as it had Emily's father. "That father? The father that…" she struggled in Emily's grasp. "The not-so-nice father?"

When JJ almost broke free, the female guard moved even closer. Emily's father, the elder Prentiss, waved her back. He smiled.

"Is this your newest lover, Emily?" he rubbed his jaw. "Seems to me you two work together. Or you used to."

"Is that a threat?" JJ scowled at him shaking off Emily's grip. "What do you have to do with this?" JJ let her eyes travel around looking pointedly at Guerin and Tergensen who were handcuffed, and Carmo who was obviously injured. "That woman requires medical assistance!"

Prentiss lost his patience. "That woman," he raised his voice, "would be dead now, all three of them would, if you hadn't walked in here and complicated things. Now drop your weapons!" He spoke with such a commanding tone that JJ had no doubt he was hardly ever disobeyed.

Tergensen gave a little squeak and tried to move closer to Guerin. The guard next to her gave her a sharp kick.

JJ's temper flared again. "You bastard! She's handcuffed and on the floor!" she made to move toward Tergensen but the female guard was instantly in front of her, weapon pointed at her nose. With her other hand the guard reached for, and took, JJ's Glock. After that she slowly disarmed Emily.

JJ glanced at Emily beside her. Emily was standing very still, very calm, her eyes moving from Guerin to her father. Prentiss noticed. "I'm still amazed at how you got yourself mixed up with her," he glanced at the hooded Guerin.

"Yes," Emily replied. "What's more interesting is how you did." JJ was gazing at her so she explained. "My father works for the NSA, JJ, deep level, secret stuff, all national security hush, hush stuff. At least I think he does because he's never actually told me."

Prentiss took a couple steps back and put his hand on the top of Guerin's head. "She can't hurt you if she can't make eye contact with you, hence the hood."

"How do you know that?" Emily was surprised. Until he said it, she hadn't realized herself that Guerin's ability to read people was dependant on eye contact.

"We met a long time ago," he patted Guerin's head, "Captain Garrison and I, in Arizona. She probably doesn't remember. "

"Oh, I do," Guerin's voice was light. "You're the one thread that's run through this whole story. Emily's abusive father, the man that saved then enslaved me and gives me my orders. The man I only glimpsed once in the hospital. I thought you were sort of familiar." She shifted slightly. "And what? What do you have to do with what's happened?"

Emily was watching her father, noticed how he bristled when Guerin called him 'abusive'.

He recovered quickly. "Not that much. As you know, I'm your handler; and the one that provides you with all the toys you want," his eyes ranged around the room, "and sometimes even the women you crave." He said the last with a sneer. "Other than that, I'm just a low level player in a big game run by some of the biggest men in America. I don't make the decisions; I just do what needs to be done."

Emily almost said something about him being a pawn in their big game, decided against it letting it slide for now. "_The Watch That Ends the Night_?" she asked instead. "They are who's behind this?"

Prentiss actually smiled. "So you were able to figure some of it out."

Emily could see how his mind was working, calculating.

"Whatever you know," he began, "whatever you have can never be proven, you must know that." Prentiss walked around behind the kneeling Guerin, gripped the top of her hood and pulled her head back. "Now give me what you have and don't lie to me. I have the best lie detector right here," he jerked Guerin's head.

Emily stared at him wondering if part of Guerin's haste to get back to her house wasn't a calculated ploy to not just force a confrontation with the man that was dogging their steps, but also to serve as a distraction for Garcia, Morgan and Reid to get to the real evidence.

"Here," she pulled the photograph from her pocket, unfolded it and tossed it towards him. It landed face up near enough for him to see it. See it and smile again.

"A group of men in a fishing lodge. That proves nothing and you know it." Prentiss very carefully pulled up Guerin's hood until her eyes were exposed. Holding her head with one hand in the hair at the back of her neck and the other gripping her throat tightly he stayed close behind her. The two guards moved so they were not in Guerin's direct line of sight. "Is she lying?"

"No," Guerin answered without hesitation. "That's all she has."

For a moment Emily thought he might let it go. She was proven wrong when her father nodded to the guard next to Tergensen. The red haired woman was yanked to her feet, the guard's pistol pressed harshly under her chin.

"Is that the truth?" This question was directed at Guerin the threat to Tergensen obvious.

"Yes, it's the truth."

No one moved or spoke for a full minute. The tension was broken by JJ.

"You bastard," she took another lunge at the tall man. Again Emily caught her.

Tergensen struggled in the grip holding her. "I'd die for you, Guerin. You know that."

Prentiss laughed and shook his head.

"Enough romantic sentiments," he nodded to the guard who released his grip on Tergensen and shoved her hard to the floor near Guerin. Prentiss pulled the hood back down over Guerin's eyes and retrieved the photograph from the floor.

"They had vision you know, this group," he studied the photograph for a moment before refolding it and slipping it in his pocket. "They were the core, the beginning." No one said anything, just let him talk. "It all came out of the paranoia of the Cold War. They wanted a safeguard, some way of regaining control if an enemy was able to take over our defense computer systems." He shrugged, seemed to think it over. "Eventually it became something more, a sort of doomsday key that could be activated when the time was right. When society had gone too far beyond the core values this country was founded on. Sometimes you have to break it all down so you can build it back up and make it better – make it right."

Emily opened her mouth to respond, was beaten to it by JJ.

"So you blew up Mexico City? What part of that was _core values_?"

Prentiss scowled. "That wasn't part of the plan. That was a mistake by a small part of the group that was too distracted by the illegal immigrant problem. JF Bennett attempted to smuggle in two bombs for them. One was intercepted and they had the audacity to use the other one, the one that made it through, what can I say," he shrugged. "I don't make the decisions."

JJ didn't let up. "Who's dictating your orders? A bunch of old men whose idea of 'core values' is making as much money as possible while other people starve?"

"You don't know a damn thing!" Prentiss' eyes flashed with anger.

"So blow me, bitch!" JJ spat at him.

On the floor, Guerin laughed heartily. Emily leaned close to JJ and said next to her ear, yet loud enough for her father to hear, "I love you, Jennifer." She kissed her cheek.

The scowl on the face of the older Prentiss deepened. Emily saw it.

"I can't imagine there's any place in their world for _people like us_," Emily drew out the last three words putting a derisive spin on them.

"I tried with you, Emily. I really did but you were always so focused on being a little boy. You never wanted to be a little girl."

"Tonka trucks will do that to you," Emily's tone was light. Guerin laughed again and Emily could feel JJ smiling.

"You mother knew you were gay when you dumped that boy in Rome and never looked back," Prentiss smirked at his daughter.

"Talk about not knowing a thing!" Emily worked hard to keep her tone light but an edge had crept in. "I dumped that boy because he made me pregnant. And I was fifteen fucking years old! That was my experiment with being straight; with trying to fit in, and with trying to please you!"

She stepped in front of JJ feeling her lover's hands on her back as she faced her father directly.

"All I ever wanted was for you to love me and care about me and all you did was put me down every chance you got. It didn't matter what I did, I know that now 'cause nothing I could ever do could possibly please you, nothing I…"

"Do you remember the night the moon got in our way?"

His voice was soft when he interrupted his daughter, soft and gentle and JJ felt the woman she loved more than anything begin to crumple in on herself.

Emily tried to say something but no words would come. She was remembering that time they were driving together, just the two of them, somewhere in Maine or Eastern Canada. They had been happy together, at least she recalled being happy because for once he wasn't drunk. They had topped a rise in the road and the full moon hung there, right there, right in their way. They had looked at each other and smiled with such delight that Emily…

"I remember, Dad. I remember thinking that for once you loved me; loved me despite everything you did to me. That you loved me like I wanted you to love me; loved me despite the fact that I couldn't be who you wanted me to be."

Prentiss stared into his daughter's tear filled eyes and said the thing that was hanging between them.

"The son that I always wanted."

JJ felt Emily drop to the floor as her knees gave out under her and a soft sob escape her. She let her go as the rage was building in her again and blinding her to anything but the pain she knew Emily was feeling.

"You fucking bastard!" JJ lunged at him.

**Around the same time**

Garcia was in the biography section and she was in a hurry. Nearby, Reid stood fidgeting; as impatient as she had ever seen him. Morgan was out of sight, somewhere near the television that was still talking to itself in the background.

…_so if you were asked, asked by what will probably come to be a new coalition government, to step up and take on the role of Vice President, would you?_

…_you betcha I would! And I'd do the great job the American people expect of me._

Garcia spotted a book; in fact there were three copies on the shelf. _Perfect_, she thought to herself. She slid the middle book from the shelf and opened it. It felt as if it had never been read before. Carefully she slipped the two microfiche cards between the pages of the book and went to place it back on the shelf and hesitated. Taking an extra precaution she took a step to her right, to the next tall stack and reached up dropping the book in behind a set of Time Life books on the Vietnam War.

Going back to the other copies of the biography, she withdrew another and placed the other two microfiche she was holding into the book. Passing Reid she went to the main desk of the library and pushed the book toward the librarian.

"I'd like to check out this book, please."

"Do you have a library card?"

"You betcha!" Garcia pulled out her FBI ID and set the folder on the cover of _Going Rogue: An American Life._

**Around the same time**

JJ hit him in the midsection her shoulder down like a linebacker. She did not knock him off his feet until, driving him backward and off balance, his feet tangled in a throw rug. Emily watched stunned for a heartbeat until the female guard began to move toward where JJ sprawled atop her father. With both hands she reached out and caught the woman's leg one hand reaching up to grab at the waist of her pants.

A few feet away, Guerin used the distraction to roll to her left toward Tergensen. When she let her head touch Tergensen's hands, Tergensen grasped the hood and held tight as Guerin jerked away. Once the hood was pulled off, Guerin fixed her eyes on the male guard.

"Unlock her handcuffs now!"

Guerin's voice was unnaturally deep and commanding. The guard gulped, dropped his weapon and began reaching into his pocket.

"No, don't! Don't look at her!" Prentiss struggled as JJ clawed and grappled with him.

It was far too late for that. With a vacant expression on his face the guard unlocked Tergensen's handcuffs. The red head then snatched the keys from him and unlocked Guerin's. With a flick of her wrist, Guerin sent the cuffs clattering across the floor. Her eyes dark and vicious she advanced on the guard.

"Down," she gestured at him with her right hand her voice the same commanding tone. The man dropped to his knees. Standing in front of him, Guerin cupped his cheek with her left hand her eyes never leaving his. Tergensen snatched up the dropped handgun and stood waiting her eyes huge with excitement.

Finally, Guerin gave the man a little push and he flopped to his side and lay there unmoving. Guerin huffed out a breath and turned toward the other people in the room.

Emily felt the change in the woman she was fighting with; felt her stop struggling and go rigid as her eyes found something over Emily's shoulder. She also felt the woman's fear and was not surprised when the woman tried to hide her face behind her shoulder.

"Off," as the word was spoken Emily felt a strong hand grip the back of her neck. The pressure was uncomfortable enough for her to be distracted and a moment later she was pushed to the side. Emily watched as Guerin stared down at the guard her face contorted with anger and contempt.

"Take you friend and go."

The woman made no move to resist, just went to the male guard, helped him to his feet, and the two walked slowly toward the front door not looking back.

Guerin then turned toward JJ and Prentiss.

"Touch her and die," Emily's voice was almost as authoritative as Guerin's.

Guerin looked around in surprise at the same time as Tergensen turned her weapon from the older Prentiss to the younger.

Emily stood stock still her own Glock trained on Guerin's head. In the front of her pants was the female guard's weapon and with her foot she pushed JJ's Glock across the floor. Grabbing up her weapon, JJ stood and went to Emily's side. Prentiss sat still on the floor his eyes tightly shut.

"It seems we have a standoff, Guerin," Emily said looking from the unarmed Guerin to Tergensen just behind her shoulder.

Guerin cocked her head more amused than angry.

"Hardly."

Guerin's eyes went from Emily to JJ and immediately Emily took a step in front of JJ. "You even think of doing anything to her and I will kill you in so many ways…" Emily let her voice trail off her point made. Guerin then looked at the man on the floor.

"You're not touching him either."

"After all he's done to you and to me you would deny me my revenge?" Guerin's voice was deadly calm.

"Revenge, Guerin, again?"

Guerin's head jerked around at that and she took a step toward the older Prentiss. Again Emily moved to block Guerin with JJ close at her back.

Guerin said nothing just stared at Emily.

"Don't let that animal near me, Emily," Prentiss said from the floor his eyes still closed.

"If I'm an animal you made me that way," Guerin spit.

"I'm still your father, Emily."

"And what did you make her into?" Guerin directed this comment to Prentiss. "You sick fuck!"

"I don't know what you're complaining about, Garrison," his tone when he said this was almost conversational. "We gave you everything you ever asked for. What else did you want?"

If Guerin was angry before it was no comparison to the rage that flooded her face now.

"My life, you dumb shit!"

Once again she made a move forward and once again it was blocked by Emily.

"Stand down, Guerin! He will get the justice he deserves," Emily adjusted her grip on her pistol. "Now stop this."

Guerin locked eyes with Emily and when she lunged forward this time it was at not at Emily's father but at Emily herself.

Emily's finger depressed the trigger as Guerin tackled her.

**Same time**

A large black SUV was coming out of the gate as Morgan turned in. They came close to colliding. Morgan only spared a glance in the rearview mirror as he guided the Escalade to the front of the house.

Without a word, he and Garcia and Reid headed through the open front door.

There was a crack of a pistol shot and the sound of shattering glass as the stray round hit a bottle behind the bar.

Guerin was shorter than Emily but stronger. She drove the dark haired woman to the floor hands around her throat. Unable to block her, Emily reached out in another way.

_They stood facing each other in the swirling mist of the grey plain. Guerin was dressed in her somewhat tarnished, golden armour, sword in her hand. A few feet away Emily faced her. She was dressed all in black from her black T-shirt, torn black jeans, heavy black boots to her long black raincoat. Her eyes were rimmed in thick, dark makeup._

"_You don't belong here, Prentiss. This is where I walk."_

"_The place between life and death, is it, Guerin?" Emily's voice held contempt._

"_You wouldn't understand," Guerin raised the broad sword she held, glanced at the dried blood on its blade, then cast it aside. "We're alone here, just me and you…"_

_Emily didn't let her finish. "Are we?" she asked as beside her the mist shimmered and JJ appeared. The blond woman looked young, tanned and healthy in cutoff jean shorts and T-shirt her bare knees grass stained as if she had just been playing soccer. On her feet were a well-worn pair of cleats. _

_Guerin just smiled glancing over her left shoulder where Tergensen now stood dressed in the fatigues of a first year army cadet. "Back to this are we?" Guerin made clear by her tone she was not impressed. "A standoff? Me and mine against you and yours?"_

"_Umm, not quite," a much younger looking Reid wearing big glasses and clutching a book cleared his throat as he moved toward them out of the mist. For a moment he stood between the four women before turning toward Guerin. _

_The smile on Guerin's face was wiped away the instant Reid spoke. _

"_I'm sorry Guerin," he stepped back toward Emily. "She's been my colleague and my friend and I know she would be there for me no matter what. I can't stand with you in this."_

"_Anyone else?" Guerin asked and the thought 'want to betray me?' hung in the air._

_Someone else was just visible in the mist off to the side. Mani Grayson, dressed in hospital scrubs and a white lab coat, locked eyes with Guerin for just a moment before turning away. She said nothing just faded from sight._

"_So…" Guerin did not finish the thought, she didn't seem to have the energy._

"_So, there's me," the voice was small but confident. _

"_Hey, girl," Emily smiled as Odalis came forward and stopped between her and Guerin. _

"_Hola, Emily. What have you got yourself into now?" _

_Odalis looked no different than when Emily had first seen her. Same shorts, T-shirt, boots and sunglasses pushed up on her head. Not waiting for an answer, Odalis turned to Guerin._

"_Always getting back at people, aren't you, G? You can never let anything go, never let it be, you always have to fight. Why don't you accept that in the end where it mattered most Claire loved you?" For a moment there was that same vision shared between them: Claire walking away saying a casual "I love you, G. I always will," back at Guerin. _

_Guerin just looked away unable to meet the truth of Odalis' words._

"_I know that you're hurt, Guerin. Hurt so deep you think you can never heal, never move on. "_

"_I should have died, Odalis." Guerin's voice was soft when she said this as if all the anger was quickly seeping out of her at Odalis' statement._

"_But you didn't and you think that's a curse. It's not. Why will you never see that?"_

"_Because I should have saved her; should have died for her."_

"_Sometimes the hardest thing is to be the one who survives, Guerin," Emily's voice was gentle. "Many nights I wanted to give up and kill myself to end all my pain and get that ultimate revenge on my parents. How horrified they would have been that their daughter, their not-so-perfect daughter, had killed herself. I didn't though and after I almost killed that girl – that girl that I thought I loved – I decided the one thing I could do was try to make myself the best person I could be because even if they didn't believe in me, I believed in me."_

_Guerin made no reply just let out a long breath and looked at no one._

"_I don't claim to have been through what you have; to have suffered as you have. I can't imagine what it would be like, how I would react. All I know is that when I was ready to live again I would hope there would be someone there to help me put myself back together. I also that I would have the courage to ask for help – to reach out to someone for that help - and I would know her when I saw her." Emily reached out a hand to JJ beside her though her eyes were on the woman who stood at Guerin's shoulder._

Garcia rushed to Carmo who still lay unconscious on the floor as Morgan stared in confusion at the one person in the room that was moving. He didn't have time to react as the tall, dark haired man swung a hasty, yet heavy fist and connected solidly with the side of Guerin's head. When Guerin collapsed to the floor, JJ, Emily, Reid and Tergensen became reanimated as if a switch had been flipped.

Tergensen jumped toward Guerin but stopped when she saw the small pistol Prentiss had pulled from an ankle holster and now pressed to Guerin's head. Dazed, Guerin did not react.

"Put them down, all of you, or she dies."

Tergensen was the first to lower her weapon; Emily and JJ did so reluctantly and Morgan had not drawn his, he simply stood watching.

"You are out gunned, you have to know that," Emily said to her father her Glock held low in both hands and pointed at the floor.

Prentiss said nothing just reached into his pocket with his free hand and withdrew a small phone. He worked a couple keys with his thumb then depressed a button on the side of the slim phone. Holding it out in front of him he spoke. "It's me. Are you there?"

The phone made a chirping sound and a voice answered, "Roger, standing by."

"Cell phones are working now?" Confused Morgan pulled his from his belt and checked the display. It was still blank.

"It's not a cell phone, it's an iDEN phone, a 'Push-to-Talk' phone, they're on a completely different circuit," Garcia explained with a tinge of admiration in her voice.

Prentiss looked at her sharply before turning his attention to Emily.

"I have someone on standby. Someone with the ability to put a missile into this house with pinpoint precision; all I have to do is give the word." Prentiss attempted to pull Guerin up, but she was still too out of it to get her feet under her. "Put your gun down and take her," he directed this at Tergensen.

When Tergensen placed her weapon on the floor, Prentiss roughly shoved the semiconscious woman into her arms.

"These two are coming with me and we are walking away. She belongs to us," her gestured vaguely at Guerin, "and she is, or was, CIA." The last part was directed at Tergensen. "We leave and the rest of you live."

"I won't allow that," Emily's voice was icy calm. "You are taking them to their deaths and I won't let that happen."

Beside her JJ said nothing just raised her chin with a defiant look. Across the room, Morgan and Reid stood still in similar defiance.

"Then we all die…" Prentiss raised the little phone.

"It was brilliant, you know, how they used the atomic clock in Boulder."

Garcia's words froze his hand before he could depress the talk button.

"What do you know? You're a technical analyst. You do database searches, "although he tried to speak with confidence there was a shadow of doubt behind his words.

Standing up, Garcia clutched the book to her chest and feigned ignorance.

"I'm sure I could figure it all out, all the details on how it was done, little old me the data analyst, given time and lots of help."

"What do you have?" Prentiss said his voice as hard as iron.

Garcia said nothing just took a couple of steps and tossed the book to Emily. Emily fanned the pages finding one of the microfiche. She held it up to the light trying to read the miniscule print.

"That's George Smalley's back door. Even though I know what it is, I can't read it. Most of it's in FORTRAN and that's an antiquated…"

Emily was watching Garcia closely. She knew that the words were not true, knew there was nothing about computers that Garcia did not know. The tiny wink Garcia aimed at her only reinforced this.

"We always suspected Smalley had done something to betray us, but we couldn't prove anything at least not until you found this. And now you can't prove anything either," Prentiss was saying, "not without the hard evidence. All you have is speculation."

"The book for them," Emily held it out to her father, smiled when she saw the cover. "You let Guerin and Devin go, give Guerin her life back, you walk away with all the secrets intact and we walk away with only hearsay."

"Taking the high road are you?" Prentiss gestured with his pistol and Tergensen dragged Guerin closer to JJ. JJ stepped between them and Emily's father.

When Emily tossed him the book, he leafed through it noting the second microfiche between the pages.

"No one would have believed you anyway, even if you had this," Prentiss directed a condescending smile at Garcia. "An FBI analyst taking on some of the most powerful men in America? Not likely."

Emily could tell Garcia was working very hard to restrain herself and knew the others felt the same.

"I will keep my end of the bargain," Prentiss started for the door. "Unless of course you make a nuisance of yourself," he looked directly at Guerin and Tergensen when he said this.

Tergensen just glared at him following him with her eyes as he made his way across the room. In the foyer he stopped. "I want you out of this house too," he cast over his shoulder, "you have an hour to take what's important to you and disappear. If you are still here after that, Tergensen, I'll kill you two myself."

"Ah, one other thing," Garcia's voice surprised everyone. "Do you think you could return the book? I was looking forward to reading it. And, oh, maybe you could get it autographed for me? That would be totally sweet." Garcia gave him one of her best smiles. Prentiss just turned on his heel and was gone.

Tergensen lowered Guerin to the floor, sat holding her. She looked up her eyes meeting Emily's. "Thank you," she said softly.

Emily nodded, held the other woman's gaze for a moment before turning to Garcia.

"Was that really what you said it was?"

Garcia grinned. "It sure was," when the others stared at her open mouthed she continued. "Don't worry. Those were the originals. If I gave him fakes or even copies there would be nothing to stop them from coming after us and, I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of being chased around. When Reid said you guys were in danger, I made a quick decision and hid the copies I made. I figured the originals would make a really good bargaining chip."

"Garcia, baby girl, how did you get to be so brilliant?" Morgan gathered her in a hug.

"When you work with brilliance, sometimes it rubs off on you," she smiled again hugging Morgan in return.

"Good thing he underestimated you," JJ gave Garcia a quick kiss and then knelt next to Carmo who was slowly regaining consciousness. Garcia and JJ helped Carmo sit up. "We'll take her to Doctor Grayson?" JJ looked at Tergensen who nodded.

"He didn't just underestimate me, JJ, he underestimated me and all my network of friends. This will get out, bit by bit. That's what the old man would've wanted, what he was thinking when put all the evidence on those microfiche cards and hid them in the library."

"I think he underestimated someone else," JJ looked at Emily an indulgent smile on her face.

"So who was that guy anyway? Besides an asshole," Garcia looked at JJ but it was Emily that answered.

"That, unfortunately, was my asshole father."

"Oh, wow," Garcia looked at Emily a serious expression on her face. "I bet Christmas dinner at the Prentiss' is going to be ball of laughs this year!"

Emily just laughed. "I don't care, I won't be there. I'll be celebrating with someone I really care about." When her eyes met JJ's, she smiled.

XXXX

I Would Die For You – Jann Arden

Next, Part 5 Conclusion: Vanilla Twilight

A/N: Almost done, just a couple of epilogues to wrap up everything nice and tidy. I hope you have enjoyed this long journey as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Even with the ups and downs I went through to get to this point, I really have enjoyed putting this out there into the endless void where it ends up, right there, right in front of you for you to take from it what you will, and give back what you care to. Alice ….


	8. Epilogues: Rain Down on Me & Hold Me Now

**A/N:** Solely for my own purposes in this story, I've made Henry a bit older than he is on the show. Also, I fixed a couple typos including the one mentioned by a reviewer ;-)

**Part 5: Vanilla Twilight**

**4 months later**

**Epilogue 1: Rain Down on Me**

**Kilcoursie Bay, Parry Sound, on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, Canada **

Tergensen stood just under the canopy at the top of the steps that led down to the cabin. Looking out over the stern of the boat she was watching Guerin.

Guerin sat on the flat platform at the very back of the 43 foot Beneteau sailboat her face angled up to the falling rain. Although her eyes were squeezed shut she seemed to be smiling. Thunder rumbled off to the northwest and the rain fell even harder. All around the boat the waters of the bay were pockmarked by the tiny yet forceful splashes of raindrops. Music was playing and as Tergensen watched, Guerin sang along to a very fitting song: _Rain on me, oh rain down on me, oh, rain down on me...yeah... I used to think I knew what I was waiting for, I don't think that anymore..._ She did nothing to break the mood, just continued to watch the woman in front of her as the music washed like rain over them both.

Guerin was shirtless, the rain soaking her hair and streaming down her bare back. She seemed utterly content soaked by the rain, lost in the music. Tergensen sighed. She wanted nothing more than to go Guerin, sit behind her, wrap her arms and legs around her and kiss her neck and back tasting the coolness of the rain and the flavour of her skin.

But Guerin had been so distant; her moods, like her mind, unreadable since she had popped back into Tergensen's life a scant ten days ago.

_I was moving forward to get the bow line when I noticed the person standing on the dock. When my mind told me it was Guerin, another part – the logical part – of my brain disagreed. When we had parted, just after the events of February four months ago, I had truly thought I would never see her again. _

_She had disappeared and I had not tried to find her. I had not returned to the government, there was no place for me there, instead I came back here to my aunt and uncle's marina in Long Beach California. It had been here I felt so comfortable, so at ease all through my teenage and college years when I wasn't spending obligatory time with my parents in Washington. That my aunt and uncle were my more loved set of parents was news to no one in our family._

_When the boat brushed the dock I jumped down and slowly approached her. She stood still, her hands in the pockets of her shorts, her face a mixture of what I hoped was happiness to see me and a deep sorrow that I hoped very much to ease._

_I put my arms around her, pulled her close to me. If she felt me trembling she made no indication. After a moment, I felt her return my embrace her cheek pressing into my shoulder as she sighed deeply. _

"_I have no right to ask this of you," her voice was the softest whisper, "I need you to help me do something that needs to be done." _

'_Anything', I told her and meant it. _

_Later that night we sat on the tiny deck of my room over the marina office. We were idly watching the sailboats and power cruisers returning to their berths and people walking along the dock on their way to and from the restaurant and bar. I had my iPod plugged into my stereo and a mix of mellow 70's music I hoped would please Guerin was playing. _

_I talked softly telling Guerin how Mani had let me know that Mich's daughter had come to see her and take Mich's body back to Europe. Mani had also found a place for Carmo at a clinic in France that could deal with her mixed abilities and improve on the progress that she had made. When I said Mich's name, Guerin looked away trying to hide the pain that seared her features and stabbed at her heart in the same way it did mine. To cover, she asked about the cat. I told her Hermione was happy with Mani and even showed her several digital pictures of Mani and the cat Mani had sent me._

_I wasn't ready to let the topic of Mich drop: 'I loved Mich very much,' I told her. 'I realize now that I wanted more than anything what you had with her: someone that could give me love and acceptance unconditionally.' Guerin had looked at me sharply when I said that and I held her eyes for a moment. _

'_It's never been easy for me to be gay,' I had started to tell her continuing when she rolled her eyes at me. 'Yeah, I know, I'm as queer as a girl can be, it's just that I always thought I'd have a normal, conventional life.' Again Guerin gave me a look. 'Yeah, I know, I'm about as far from that as I could be,' I had smiled at her. 'I think that thing with Emily's father made me understand that I'm not living my life for my parents and their expectations, I'm living it for me and the life that I want and the woman I want to love.' _

_I had snuck that last part in and watched her closely for a reaction. She had sighed deeply and did not meet my eye. For a long time we were silent as the air cooled with a breeze off the water._

_I wanted so much to take her back inside, into my bedroom, and make love to her to ease the inexplicable pain I could feel she was going through. My hands would soothe her tension and my mouth would draw from her the pleasure I felt she deserved. Once I half rose from my chair to go to her, but the empty look on her face was not encouraging. _

_Guerin was on her third drink of rum when she turned to me and said: "Someday I want to make love to you and show you so much more than I ever have before. I want to, I want to… I just don't know if I can be everything that you need me to be and that you deserve to have."_

_At that she put down her glass and went inside. Later, when I went to bed, she was on her side in my bed. I moved close behind her, held her, loosely yet comfortably, all through the night. This would come to be our pattern over the next nights we were together._

_We flew to Montreal the next day, rented a nice SUV and began the long drive north. Guerin had programmed the GPS and I was not surprised when, late in the day, the female voice guided us to a cemetery outside Rimouski. _

_I sat in the car, my hands rigid on the steering wheel, looking away from Guerin and out over the St. Lawrence River. The clouds coming in from the west were heavy with rain and thunder already boomed in the distance as she got out. I turned to watch her go up over the hill past the pretty white church._

_I sat there waiting, hoping that coming here would be the one thing she needed to give herself closure. Although I wanted more than anything for Guerin to feel the same love for me that I knew she had felt for Claire, I knew that Claire and her tragic death would always be a part of Guerin just like her scars were a part of her. The damage that had been done to her, and she had done to herself in her lust for revenge, could never be undone. Somehow, someway, I hoped so much that I could help her accept it. _

_It was beginning to rain when she returned some time later. She slipped into the passenger seat, half closed the door. Her mind had been closed to me since her return, but I did not need that special connection to know she was falling apart. _

_I sat there for a long few minutes as I watched her shoulders begin to tremble and her eyes become heavy with tears. She held her hands between her knees as her breath became ragged, the quivering moving into an all over shaking._

_I didn't know what to do, and as I sat there, I could feel my heart breaking. Finally I disconnected the logical part of my mind and let my body react. Going around to her side of the car, I opened the door and gathered her in my arms. _

"_Let go, Guerin," I told her. "Let go. I'll catch you. I won't let you fall." _

_For the next few minutes she sobbed like I had never heard anyone cry. I did the only thing I could do, just held her and told her I would be there for her. The rain drummed hard on the roof and I had to wiggle half onto the seat with her so I would not get soaked. Not that it mattered; the front of my shirt was so wet with her tears it might as well have been because of rain._

_Eventually her sobs slowed and her breathing began to return to normal. When she let go of me she would not meet my eyes, just turned and crawled into the back seat. I went around to the back and helped her get comfortable slipping a shirt under her head and tossing a jacket over her body. _

_When she was settled, I returned to the driver's seat and turned the SUV south back toward Montreal. I did not drive far, just as far as Riviere de Loup where I found a comfortable and quiet motel. Once in the room, Guerin went from the bathroom to the bed shedding clothes as she went. She would not eat anything just asked me for some pain killers. I held her again that night. _

_Two days later when we picked up the boat I had arranged for, Guerin was still a shadow of her former self. She had slept a lot and eaten little. It wasn't until we were headed south through the Thousand Islands and out into Lake Ontario that she seemed to begin to recover. _

_She took to sailing like it was a natural thing; moving about the boat and doing everything I taught her like she had been doing it all her life. Still, she talked very little and many times I caught her staring out across the water her mind obviously a million miles away._

_We stopped in Kingston and Toronto, went through the Welland Canal and into Lake Erie, around Long Point and Point Pelee, through the St. Clair River and into Lake Huron. Up along the Canadian side of Lake Huron we stopped in Goderich and then at Tobermory at the top of the Bruce Peninsula. Eventually we made it to this sheltered bay that was ringed by the soft sand beaches of an Ontario Provincial Park._

_We had been here since yesterday._

A soft giggle brought Tergensen back to the present. Guerin was looking up at the sky again as a bright beam of sunshine burst through the fracturing storm clouds.

Putting her logical mind aside, Tergensen left the shelter of the canopy and moved to Guerin. A light rain still pattered the boat here and there as she slipped in behind Guerin sitting just a little above her and enveloping the other woman with her arms and legs.

"A sun shower," Guerin said as she leaned back into the warm body behind her. She covered Tergensen's hands with her own as they moved up and down her thighs. Taking Tergensen's right hand, she pressed it to the center of her chest as Tergensen began laying gentle kisses along her neck and shoulder. With a contented sigh, Guerin relaxed deeply into the woman behind her. With her free hand, Tergensen combed her fingers through Guerin's wet hair. Gently she kissed the skin at the nape of Guerin's neck tasting the cool rain mixed with a tiny bit of salty sweat and the vanilla massage oil she had rubbed into her tired muscles the night before.

Some time passed, thunder still rumbling away to the north. Tergensen was thinking about rain and how it always aroused her. She wanted to tell Guerin how she loved to make love in the rain; how the sound of thunder and the patter and drum of rain on the roof filled her with excitement, when Guerin turned slowly in her arms. Their eyes met for only the barest moment then Guerin was kissing her, deeply, sensually, as if nothing in this world mattered.

Tergensen returned the kiss feeling a tingle run through her body from her bare toes to the top of her head. There had always been something so hungry, so primal about the way Guerin kissed, but this was all that and more. This kiss, as Guerin's tongue traced her upper then lower lip, probed gently into her mouth, was so much more. It was infused with a longing and a surrender, so much so it was confusing in its intensity.

Her throat tight, Tergensen broke off holding the other woman snug to her chest, her chin on the top of Guerin's head.

"Tell me what you feel, G," she said eventually.

For a long time Guerin just breathed. When she spoke it was soft and it was honest.

"I feel safe, I feel warm, I feel protected and I feel like nothing matters now and nothing ever will matter. How did we get here, Devin?"

Tergensen didn't say anything, she couldn't, her throat was so tight. In answer she ran her hand up and down Guerin's back, through her hair as she held her. A slow, mournful song was playing now and Tergensen hummed to the melody watching the sun rays move across the water and a rainbow appearing and disappearing among the low clouds.

"You're my dark angel, G, and I love you with everything I have," when her voice broke on the last phrase she still pushed on. "I wish I could be what you need me to be."

Guerin breathed out against her chest, the arm across Tergensen's back pulling tighter.

"I've never been good to you, Dev, I know that."

The thought seemed to go unfinished.

"It doesn't matter, Guerin. If you are thinking about sex," Tergensen paused to kiss Guerin on her forehead. "I know who I am and I pity those who don't want a strong woman to just take control and give them everything they need and crave." She could feel Guerin smiling against her. "It's just not all that I am, and I think you know that."

"I do," Guerin said softly after a time. "I think you are more than anyone ever thought you were; certainly more than I ever thought you were or could be."

"I just can't be Claire, G, and I don't want to be."

"I know, I would never ask you to be. Claire is gone now."

At that Tergensen knew that Guerin had turned a corner in her life. Though they may talk about Claire and Guerin would still remember the good things, the past was behind her now.

After a time: "Will you play for me, Guerin?"

Guerin looked up, a smile teasing at the corners of her mouth.

"I saw my guitar," this time she actually grinned. "How did you get it here?"

The guitar, and the pictures on the wall of the office of the big house outside Washington, were some of the few things they had taken when they left. The morning after those long dark days when Tergensen had woken to find herself alone, she realized Guerin had left them behind with her. When the details with the boat had been finalized, Tergensen had the guitar and a digital frame she had the pictures in now shipped to Toronto where, without drawing too much attention to the fact, she picked them up.

"I have my ways," Tergensen caressed Guerin and kissed the top of her head.

For a long time Guerin sat still and a tiny bit of doubt crept into Tergensen's logical mind. Finally Guerin stirred, getting up and going below. When she returned, Tergensen was sitting on one of the side benches looking expectant.

Standing just under the canopy, Guerin ran her hand down the shiny new strings of the Larrivee. Throwing the strap over her bare back, she checked the tuning with a practiced ear. For a moment she stood still looking out over Tergensen's head at the beach at the end of the bay. Several songs occurred to her: the Blue Rodeo songs that were playing before she turned the stereo off, Make and Break Harbour by Stan Rogers, the Lennie Gallant song she had played for Claire that time. An ironic smile passed her lips when she thought of that song.

Eventually it was like the song picked itself as the chords came naturally and she played and sang as if she had never stopped playing.

_Hey tomorrow, where are you goin'? Do you have some room for me? 'Cause night is fallin' and the dawn is callin' I'll have a new day if she'll have me…_

When the song was finished Tergensen stood in front of Guerin. Slowly she unfastened the strap and took the guitar with one hand. With her other hand she traced her knuckles under Guerin's chin as she kissed her.

It was raining again, the thunder getting closer.

"Come inside, G, and I will make love to you and show you so much more than I ever have before."

**Epilogue 2: Hold Me Now**

**Near Bonita Beach, Florida, USA**

JJ stood just inside the door of the bathroom watching Emily. Her arms over the back of the big tub, her feet just sticking out at the far end through the thick bubbles, Emily appeared relaxed and content. Candles arranged around the tub cast a muted light and Emily's head moved to the music that was playing, As JJ watched, she turned slightly and her lips moved as she sang with the song.

_She is strong enough to stand in my love, I can hear her say, I'm weak, I'm poor, I'm broken, oh, but I'm yours, hold me now, hold me now…_

All JJ could think of was slipping out of her clothes and hopping into the tub with Emily. Or jumping maybe, just a little flip of her legs over the side and a moderate splash and she would be there, right there in front of Emily who would smile her goofy smile just before JJ kissed her.

_God, she's just so beautiful and I will never understand how she came to be mine. Not that it matters. I have all I want, all I ever could ask for. And to think that I almost lost her – more than once. _

_In those dark days after that awful confrontation with her father, Emily had seemed to crack. We had gone to the BAU and found, in an embarrassing moment at the gate, that our passes had been revoked. I called Hotch and he met us later at Emily's. I thought Emily would be angry but she just sat still, calm, as Hotch talked._

_He didn't know why, he had said honestly, just that it had come down from above, above Strauss even. Emily had looked up when the Section Chief's name was mentioned with an unreadable look on her face. _

_When Hotch told us it would probably be best if we resigned instead of letting them drive us out, Emily had stood from the couch and gone to the window her steps measured and outwardly calm yet I could feel the tension screaming through her. I waved to Hotch, trying to quell his look of concern and went to her._

_She did not curse her father as I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my cheek to her back; did not curse the government or that group of powerful men who had put us in such terrible peril. Instead, she held my hands around her waist and said simply: 'I wanted to do good.'_

'_I know, baby,' I told her, 'and for the time that you were there you did.' Right in that moment I wasn't thinking a lick about myself or my career. The only thing I could feel was her pain and the only thing I wanted was to ease that pain_.

_When eventually we sat down again, Hotch only glanced at our clasped hands. 'I'm so sorry, Emily, JJ. The team won't be the same without you. Sometimes the people in charge make really stupid decisions,' he had said, and we had all laughed at the last part as it was a bit out of character for Hotch to be so candid. Then when Emily asked about Reid, Morgan and Garcia both Hotch and I knew she wasn't being vindictive, just truly cared about her friends and their jobs._

'_Nothing,' Hotch had said, 'nothing has been said about them.' They had gone back to work like nothing had ever happened; like they had never had anything to do with uncovering the most bizarre and sinister plot in the recent history of our country. But I knew Garcia, and over the next few weeks and months things began leaking out._

_Investigative reporters from all over the world were presenting parts of the puzzle as bits and pieces of the computer code began to appear in stories. Most of the big companies that had been affected, and may have been complicit, tried to claim innocence as the evidence was found deep in their systems by computer specialists both legitimate and not so legitimate. _

_The right wingers made a great sound and fury over the evidence, claiming proprietary secrets had been revealed jeopardizing the good functioning of America's best employers and the cornerstone of free enterprise blah, blah, blah. The world wasn't listening this time, not buying the argument that outside forces were to blame._

_When it came out that the atomic clock in Boulder – the clock to which almost all major computer systems in North America connected to synchronize their internal time keeping – had been how George Smalley's back door had been triggered, the wind went out of the sails of the antigovernment group. Like cockroaches exposed to the light, they scurried and hid and the general talk turned from finding someone to blame to how to build ourselves back up and make things better – for everyone. _

_At that point, I had never been so proud of our role in this whole affair. It didn't matter to me if no one ever knew, or at least if no one ever knew - for now. And I didn't care about my job. They could take it and shove. The freedom was almost exhilarating. I had that, and I had Henry, and I had Emily. Will had not contacted me and though I grieved in a way for Henry and the loss of his father, a big part of me really didn't give a damn about Will. _

_If my adjustment was relatively easy, Emily's was not. A part of her had been crushed by her father's revelation and his stinging and final rejection. I had comforted her as best I could. Comforted her for the pain her father had put her through and the agony she felt for losing the career that had been so much a part of her and meant so much to her. She had been damaged by him; a hurt that ran so deep and affected so much of who she was. Every day I woke with her beside me and every night she said only 'hold me now' and clung to me, I felt nothing if not blessed. _

_She was adrift, I knew, and needed closure. For that she went to her mother. Again, as in the past, her mother pretended that nothing had happened, blaming all Emily's pain on the choices she had made and the things she had done in her life. Her parents were not to blame, they had tried to give her everything she wanted, her mother had stated calmly and reasonably. I was in the next room of Emily's parents' beautiful, solid, house, the home that was built on such a lie and parody of the strong American family, when I heard Emily's voice say 'everything but love!' There was a long moment of silence and Emily walked out her face blank. _

_Over the next few weeks she retreated into herself doing nothing more than she needed to and then only going through the motions. Henry would stand next to the bed, stare at her back, then come to me a worried look on his face. 'Why doesn't her mother love her?' he asked one time. I pulled him on to my lap and hugged him combing my fingers through his soft blonde hair. _

_I told him it was complicated, which was lame, of course. Then, thinking it over, I tried to explain. Tried to tell him that sometimes parents just weren't very good parents and they did things that hurt their children for reasons that no one could really understand. He looked at me, smiled and tweaked my nose. 'Not you,' he said, 'and not Emily.' God, kids could be so smart and so trusting. If he had asked about Will at that moment I don't know what I would've done. Thankfully Will had not been much a part of his life for a long time. Instead he asked when he could go see grammy and grampy again._

_Emily went to therapy and it seemed to be helping her when one day there was a messenger at the door with an envelope from her mother. Emily read the letter from her mother standing there in the hall and when she was done, she slid down the wall and sat on the floor. With her arms around her knees she cried like I had never thought anyone could cry. I did my best to comfort her just holding her whispering reassurances to her. _

_I was curious about the letter stealing glances at it where it lay on the floor beside us. Eventually Emily calmed enough to reach out and pick it up. She read it again and handed it to me. _

_In the letter her mother apologized for all the hurt she and her father had put Emily through. She was sorry she could not admit it sooner, sorry that Emily had suffered, and sorry that she wasn't strong enough to stop her father from wrecking havoc with her life and her innocence with the emotional abuse he had put her through. _

_After that Emily seemed to bounce back. She had received the acknowledgement her heart craved and I knew, in time, she would reach out to her mother again. Her father, she told me, was lost to her and always would be. _

_We decided in June to go see Odalis in Florida. The invitation for Emily to return to the place she had run to was always open and frankly, I was curious about the odd woman I had only seen in such a bizarre way in that dreamscape or whatever it was of Guerin's. Also, young Henry had developed something of a very young version of an online romance with the daughter of another woman Emily had met in Florida. That he_ was _mature beyond his 5 years didn't surprise me. Nor did the computer skills he had picked up from Garcia. That the Internet and most communications had gone away for the short time they did, I think made people realize what a unique gift friends could be to us even if they were far away. That everyone went right back to what they were doing like none of it had ever happened didn't surprise me in the least. _

_When we pulled up in front of the beach house Henry was so excited. He jumped out of the car and bounded over to Chris. They hugged each other and started talking about what they were going to do. Odalis smiled and hugged Emily in a restrained way that probably had a lot to do with my presence. 'If we ever meet again…' I heard her say to Emily as she turned her attention to me. When she embraced me, I knew that a lot had passed between them and hopefully Emily would tell me about it when she was ready. _

_Katie was a hoot and she and I hit it off right away. Later over drinks, she told me how she had made a pass at Emily after too much rum and dirty dancing and we both laughed drawing the attention of Emily and Odalis. _

'_Are you telling her about the threesome thing?' Emily had asked with such a sly look I was immediately turned on in a way that embarrassed me. Then Katie told that story and we all laughed together. I could see then what Emily saw in Odalis: her feisty, take no shit attitude was wrapped in genuine warmth and backed by such wisdom I had never seen from anyone in my life. _

'_She was here, she's been here actually, on and off,' Odalis said later referring to Guerin. 'She has a new identity. Money will buy you that. And she gave me the house.' When I asked where Guerin's money came from, Odalis looked at me and smiled. 'You ever try to play poker against someone who can read your mind?' _

_Odalis and Emily had exchanged a long look when the topic of Guerin came up. Something passed between them and later I heard Emily telling Odalis she was glad that Guerin had let her go. Again I was curious and it wasn't until my eyes fell on that painting that Claire had done of Guerin and Odalis that I stopped worrying about Emily explaining. _

_As I stood staring at it I realized 'let her go' could mean a couple things. I hoped it meant both that Guerin had let Claire go and that she had also let Odalis out from under the veil of jealousy so vividly portrayed in the painting. _

"Is Henry settled with Chris and Odalis?" Emily asked into the quiet between songs looking over her shoulder at JJ.

"Yeah, the three of them are sharing the bedroom over the garage," JJ moved into the room and sat on the low step next to the tub. "Enjoying your bath, sexy girl?" JJ smoothed a stray lock of hair out of Emily's eyes.

"The view is amazing," Emily glanced at the broad windows and their view of the gulf through the raindrops that were streaming down the glass. She then fixed her eyes on JJ. "What were you thinking about standing back there?"

JJ ran her fingers through the warm water and over Emily's wet knee. "Everything, nothing. Mainly you and how we got here."

"The I95 south through…" Emily started with a playful look on her face. JJ cut her off with a slap of the water.

"I thought I was going to lose you again," JJ said after a long while.

Emily sighed. "I'm sorry, JJ. It was almost too much for me to take, you know. That bastard Bennett, us losing our jobs – our careers – my parents…" she left the thought unfinished.

"At least you didn't run from me."

"I needed you, Jennifer, or I never would have gotten through it all," she held the gaze of the woman beside her, blinked slowly. "You're so strong, and I _so_ love that about you. If you hadn't been there to hold me after I read that letter from my mother, I don't know what I would've done." The brown eyes looking at JJ were rimmed with glistening tears.

"I'll always be there for you, Em," JJ emphasized the words with a slow, tender kiss. "That's a part of loving you."

For a long time they were silent. Finally JJ asked the thing that had been at the back of her mind for a long time.

"That connection you have with Guerin," JJ started slowly. "Do you still… can you still…"

Emily didn't reply, just looked away a quizzical expression on her face. She had never tried to reach Guerin, just reacted to the times she had felt the other woman grasping for her. She let her mind slip down as she drew in a deep breath and thought about Guerin.

The connection was hazy at first then it hit her why. She sucked in a breath as a wave of intense sexuality washed over her. She couldn't help how her body reacted instantly and powerfully to the feeling of pleasure and of love that passed through her. When she realized what it was and why, she cut it off.

JJ was staring at her. "What was that?" she asked pronouncing each word slowly.

Emily exhaled. Every atom in her body was buzzing. Looking at JJ made it even worse. "They are making love, Guerin and Devin."

"Oh, yeah?" JJ was looking into Emily's brown eyes liking the dark arousal she saw there. "I'm happy for Devin and it's funny how that's what I'd like to be doing right now with you."

"Oh, yeah? Is that so?" Emily's voice held a note of mischievousness.

"It is," when Emily moved to get out of the tub, JJ held her back with just a finger on the tip of her nose. "No, stay there, I'll be right back, I just need to change the music."

JJ was gone for only a moment. When the music started again it was a sensual, Latin beat.

And JJ began to dance. Emily turned in the tub her chin on her hands watching. Watching as JJ moved to the music her hips swaying, arms above her head, hands moving through her loose hair. Emily grinned a goofy smile, had it change to something else, as JJ began to lift her T-shirt over her head.

Over the next few minutes JJ shed her clothes as Emily watched, her arousal notching higher with each piece that hit the floor. When she was down to just her panties, JJ approached the tub and turned, moving her hips so her only partially clad behind was right in Emily's face.

With a little growl, Emily took JJ's hips in her hands and placed a wet kiss on the small of her back. "God, you're amazing," she said her lips still brushing JJ's back. She was starting to pull the panties down over JJ's hips when the other woman stopped her.

"Not yet," JJ took a couple steps back and turned. When she did Emily saw her hand was at the waist of her underwear, and moving downward slowly. Emily felt a lump in her throat as she tried hard to breathe. Mesmerized, she watched JJ's two fingers stop moving down and slowly began to move in a circular motion.

Once again she wanted to leave the tub, but JJ's coy smile and gentle shake of her head held her back. Her head back, JJ moved her fingers over her most sensitive spot her pleasure obvious. Meeting Emily's eyes and holding her gaze, JJ returned to the tub. Drawing her fingers from between her legs, she brushed them over Emily's lips. With a flick of her jaw, Emily caught the two fingers in her mouth, began sucking them.

A small laugh, almost like giggle escaped JJ and she pulled her fingers away. Her eyes moved from Emily to the water in the tub. "Oh, what's that?" she said suddenly, leaning forward and reaching into the water - reaching deep into the water and right between her lover's legs.

Emily's eyes widened as JJ's same two fingers moved between her folds finding her tender nub and caressing it like she had caressed herself. Leaning toward Emily, JJ kissed her letting her own passion seep out. When she broke off, Emily was as breathless as before.

"I think I need to join you in there," JJ said slipping off her panties.

"I think that's long overdue," Emily helped JJ slide slowly into the tub, kissed her.

Separating this time, Emily watched as JJ swallowed hard. When she spoke her voice was serious.

"Tell me it will always be as good as this, Em."

Emily grinned, kissed JJ's nose. "I guarantee it will be. Know why?"

JJ just shook her head.

"Because I love you, that's why."

…and so it ends.

**A/N:**

The songs that inspired this part are as follows: Vanilla Twilight by Owl City; Rain Down on Me and Dark Angel by Blue Rodeo (the later featuring Sarah McLachlan); the song Guerin sings to Devin is Hey Tomorrow by Jim Croce (1972); Hold Me Now by Jennifer Knapp and the song that inspired JJ's dancing was Las Noches by Huey Dunbar.

As with all the songs used in this story and At the End of the Night, I invite you to check them out.

Thanks for reading and a special thanks to everyone who took the time to review or send me a personal message. For those of you who have stayed with me all the way through you get my extra special thanks. Above and beyond thanks goes to bdd4evr and Rain1657 for being there for me. Extra, extra special thanks to my wife for putting up with me. On that note I'll announce that I don't think I'll be writing any more CM fanfic. I'm going to turn my creative ideas to original work. See my profile for updates on how that's going. I'll see you around…

Alice …


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